Pandora's Box
by delypanda
Summary: He was bright, fun, and interesting. He drew her to him like nothing or no one ever had. He was the one who showed her how to be selfless. He was the one who taught her how to love. He was the one she wanted to stay beside yet, it was the first time she had actually ever let go of what she wanted. Lavi/OC [HIATUS]
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: Own nothing but my OCs!**_

Summary: He was bright, fun, and interesting. He drew her to him like nothing or no one ever had. He was the one who showed her how to be selfless. He was the one who taught her how to love. He was the one she wanted to stay beside yet, it was the first time she had actually ever let go of what she wanted. Lavi/OC

 _A/N: First few chapters might be a little boring since it's only going to be following the anime/manga exactly, and the OC isn't going to have much interactions with the canon characters until later._

 _A/N: Edited on 11/04/2017. Mostly changes in the phrasing and small details._

* * *

 **-CHAPTER 1-**

* * *

 _Have you ever heard of Pandora's box?_

 _It must never be opened._

 _Why not? Because…_

 _A source of great and unexpected trouble. It holds all the evil and sins that ever existed from the beginning of time inside of it._

 _It exists in all humans, in the form of the Seven Sins._

 _Wrath. Pride. Lust. Envy. Greed. Gluttony. Sloth._

 _But at the bottom, there was a light. A glowing green speck of hope._

 _What are we?_

 _Are we evil, or are we hope?_

 _We are the Pandora._

* * *

It was cold.

It was dreary.

It was _boring_.

Boring. Boring. Boring.

Awfully dreadfully boring.

She was going to die of boredom at this rate.

Well, at least there was an upside to all this. She got to dress in the nice fashionable long coat that she had been eyeing for the longest time but never had a chance to wear. She had always liked winter fashion the most out of all the four seasons, and Europe was perfect for such fashion.

The girl sneezed, scrunching up her nose irritably. But how long was this blasted time loop going to continue?

Blue eyes stared out the window from her vantage point in a quaint little bookshop café on the second floor, the dim sunlight shining on her platinum blond hair. If she squinted a little, she could just make out the dark fog outside of the village gates, no doubt encircling the whole village.

 _THUMP._

The girl winced, already knowing it was the helper boy downstairs dropping the load of books again, for the nth time. She didn't particularly love books, but she appreciated them enough to feel a tinge of distress, just imagining the damage done to the delicate pages and corners of the books over and over again. There wasn't anything she could do to stop the clumsy boy. Goodness, those poor books..

She sighed, resting her cheek on her palm, her figure slouching across the table. How long more would she be stuck here, to repeat this day over and over again? She hadn't even been intending on staying long when she came, perhaps a week or two, but then, the day had started repeating itself and before she knew it, it had already been October 28 for a month.

It had been fascinating at first, of course. Thinking about the mischief she had managed - even though she was the only one who knew and they all forgot the next day - brought the ghost of a grin to her lips. People had been repeating the things they did exactly as they had the day before. She had wanted to see what she could change, and what effects the changes she made would have. Oh, she had been a right terror, indeed. Not that they remembered it the next day. If they did, she might have been thrown into jail or probably the mental institution.

But she was bored now.

She had gotten the information she had wanted. _They_ weren't here. There was no more excitement here for her. Messing with the same people every day quickly grew old. She wanted more, _needed_ more than this monotonous lifestyle of sitting in a bookshop, sipping tea and watching the gates, and she couldn't have that if she didn't leave.

Her eyes narrowed in thought, fingers unconsciously tapping out a random tune on the tabletop.

Except for one tiny little tidbit that she wanted to continue observing to see what happened next. There was a woman. Miranda Lotto. Rather pathetic looking, with scraggly long hair tied up tightly in a bun and perpetual dark eye circles. Constantly twitchy and really really ill-starred. The only other human that had an inkling that something was not right in this rewinding town. The root cause of all this was connected to her.

Suddenly, movement caught her eye. Perking up, her vision focused in on the gates. People had just appeared inside the gates. Two, in fact. They were unmistakably new visitors to the town. Apart from their clothes - black coats with a silver cross emblem emblazoned on the front – which were different from the usual German citizen, their appearance was vastly unique and rare in this part of Europe.

A white-haired boy, with a red tattoo-looking mark beginning from the outline of a five-pointed star above his left brow partly hidden under his snowy fringe and running down his cheek to nearly reach his jawline. She wondered fleetingly what kind of injury could result in such a peculiar scar. And the other; a girl with distinctly Asian features and her green hair up in twin-tails. Both looked a little younger than she was herself, maybe fourteen or sixteen.

Nobody had entered the town ever since the rewinding started, and she hadn't been able to leave either, always somehow inexplicably walking back into town despite not having turned back. So these two must be…

 _Finally._ The girl cheered internally, the only sign a smirk on her face. She hoped the exorcists would settle this as soon as possible. The faster she could leave, the better. She would have helped them – she already knew what was causing this - but she had no intention of drawing attention from the Order to herself in any case.

For now, she would just watch.

* * *

"Oh. We're... in." Allen and Lenalee both stared in surprise at the bustling crowd of people that had seemingly materialized out of nowhere. From outside the gates, the streets had been looked to be silent and empty of all life; like a ghost town.

"It was kind of anti-climactic, wasn't it?" Lenalee laughed. The girl had been expecting well, _something_ , after seeing the Finder being repelled by a barrier of sorts, unable to even stick a hand through past the gates. "We just _walked in_."

They walked along the main street for a while, observing the behavior of the townspeople. If they weren't sent here on a mission, they wouldn't have known that anything was wrong. No one behaved in any way that was out of the norm. It looked like your average day in a quiet countryside town. Of course, Allen had already suspected that none of them would be aware of the fact that they were repeating the same day over and over again. After all, they had been sent here to investigate by their Supervisor and Lenalee's brother, Komui, based on complains by a half-curious half-annoyed alcohol supplier. Apparently, one of the bars in that town had been ordering ten barrels of rose wine for the 29th of October for a month now.

"Should we split up for now, then? We can get more information this way." Lenalee suggested, a faraway look in her eyes that told him she had some things she wanted to check out herself. After all, they couldn't do anything without understanding the situation. Knowledge of the surroundings and the enemy, if any, was the most important thing in any battle. "We'll meet at that bar at noon, alright?"

Allen agreed, waving at Lenalee as she walked away. Well then, he wondered, where should he go now? Where was the best place to gather information yet be inconspicuous? Was there an Innocence here or not? He didn't really want to walk around aimlessly in hopes of stumbling onto something. That would be rather inefficient.

Actually, wouldn't the bar be suitable? People would be coming in and out and talking amongst themselves. He could simply just sit there and eavesdrop. His eye would alert him to any akuma around anyway. Thinking of his experience with General Cross in the many bars over the years, Allen decided that, yes, the bar would be a good place to start.

"Hey! Unlucky woman!"

He was just about to cross the road when a shout caught his attention. He paused in his steps, staring in shock at the rudeness of the bunch of children jeering at a rather haggard-looking older lady.

Allen had just been about to continue on when one of the children suddenly lobbed a coil of poop at the woman, sticking a tongue out for effect, and she surprisingly dodged it quite expertly. How had she- it was almost like she had known it was coming!

"Wha- She dodged it! How-" The kid's eyes bulged out in shock.

The lady huffed indignantly. "People tend to remember it if you throw the same thing at the same time for thirty-one times!"

The group of kids unanimously gave her a very disturbed look, suddenly looking like they might have picked the wrong target to tease. "What are you talking about?! It's only the first time today!"

"Miranda's gone off her rocker!" They squealed, running away. "Unlucky, unlucky!"

…Wait, what?! She remembered it?! Why? Out of all the people in the town, why was she the only one who re-

Allen gasped, his left eye turning black and red. There was an akuma nearby! He'd have to find it first, and then question that lady after!

He ran quickly, wanting to prevent anyone from getting killed unnecessarily, already hearing the sounds of crashing ahead. Just around the corner! He increased his speed.

"-the Innocence? Where?" That voice with the mechanical undertone was unmistakably an akuma.

 _The akuma is looking for Innocence? That means it is here, in this town!_

Turning the corner, Allen saw that the level 2 was pinning the woman from before – _why was she there?!_ – to the wall with a clawed hand. Activating his Innocence, his arm transformed into its sword form, an orange energy pillar as the blade, with an ominous green flare of energy at his shoulder, he said firmly. "Let the woman go."

The akuma immediately fired, a blast of purple shooting straight towards him. Jumping out of the way, he swiftly brought his arm up to block the next attack; a swipe from the akuma with sharp claws intending to at least take his head off. He grunted, still not too used to this new form his arm had taken on as he exchanged blows with the akuma.

The woman yelled something that was muffled in between the sounds of the clashes between the akuma and his Innocence, but her crazy laughter as she went speeding out of the alley made it to his ears clearly.

"Ah, no, wait-!"

The akuma fired again and distracted as he was with the sudden exit of the woman, Allen almost got caught in the explosion. Though Timcampy wasn't as lucky and got slammed into a wall by the gust of air billowing forth from the point of impact.

Allen gritted his teeth. Jumping high to avoid the bullets, he was in the perfect position to cut the akuma in half in one fluid motion as he landed.

As the akuma exploded, he sighed sadly, pulling his hood back over his head. Their lead – probably the only one – had just disappeared. What was he going to tell Lenalee?

* * *

Horrendously wonky lips, too sharp a nose and weird squiggly eyes, or at least she assumed those were eyes and a nose, judging from the general placement of those features in what was supposed to be a face. It could've been a hippo, for all she knew. Anything with eyes, nose and a mouth would do. Or maybe Allen had created a whole new species of being.

Lenalee stared blankly at the piece of paper in her hands. She had just been scolding her fellow exorcist for losing that woman.

' _It's alright! I've made a sketch of her!' He says. Is this even a woman? How am I supposed to recognize this woman from this drawing?_

She couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. She had never even dreamt that someone could have such a serious lack of artistic skills. Or maybe that was because she grew up around Lavi and Bookman? Those two could make a drawing come to life, literally.

"Eh? Is it weird?"

"Yes, it is." Lenalee said matter-of-factly, not even bothering to disguise what she thought about his drawing. They wouldn't be able to move forward like this. Not with this lack of information, or more like, the lack of proper communication of information. She sighed. "If this was going to happen, we should never have split up."

 _Yeah, if his drawing skills are this bad, we're definitely never going to split up again. Never._

"You're certain the akuma you destroyed was asking for 'Innocence' specifically?"

"Mmrgh." Allen made an affirmative noise, his mouth too stuffed with half a steak that he had shoved into that cave he called a mouth in one bite to be able to properly enunciate words.

"Y-you've got quite the appetite, don't you." Lenalee eyed the various plates laid out on their table, their contents instantly vanishing into Allen's black hole of a stomach within a blink of an eye. She had never seen him eat before. No doubt Jerry was one happy chef to be able to cook for someone that obviously lived for his stomach.

Wiping his mouth, he brought the conversation back to the point. "Anyway, we've got to watch out for this woman. We're quite lucky, aren't we? To meet so her quickly."

"You're quite the optimist too.." She noted, wondering just how they were going to find that woman again. Well, despite his drawing skills – or lack thereof – they should be able to find her by asking the townspeople around. Allen could just describe the woman in words. "Next time, we're definitely sticking together."

"What about you, Lenalee?"

"Oh, well, it looks like my brother was correct. We aren't able to leave this town now that we've entered it. I tried earlier, but I just found myself back inside again." Lenalee said, frowning a little. She had never seen anything like this before. It stumped her greatly. Earlier, she had kicked a hole in one the town's walls and tried to walk out of town but had somehow only ended up where I had started. "Seems like we can't leave unless we solve this phenomenon caused by the Innocence."

Allen tilted his head in thought, pondering about the whole situation when he got distracted by a sudden surge of the weird feeling that had been itching at him ever since he and Lenalee had sat down at the table. Looking up, he froze at the sight of a head wrapped in a shawl creepily staring at them from the booth behind Lenalee.

"Allen? What's wrong?"

"AH! That's her, Lenalee!" Allen yelled, jostling the table slightly with his knee as he jumped to his feet violently, brandishing a finger in her face.

Lenalee barely held in her flinch at the sudden appearance of the gloomy-looking woman and at Allen's sudden outburst.

After that, everything descended into chaos rapidly.

There was screaming, cups of water flying everywhere, a window escape, and a near face-plant by Allen as he nearly got tugged out the window by his grip on the back of the woman's dress, saved only by Lenalee's quick reflexes.

Eventually, the two teenagers managed to calm her down enough to be seated at the same table with them, assuring her that they meant her no harm. Miranda Lotto was apparently, quite the jumpy woman.

Though, Lenalee noticed that she kept eyeing them as though she was expecting them to up and disappear any moment now.

"-so happy to meet someone who can tell that there's something wrong with this town. You're the first ones! Everyone only made fun of me when I tried to tell them. I thought I might have gone crazy and started hallucinating! I really was ready to kill myself there!"

 _No, please don't do that. Really, don't do that._

The two exorcists paled, polite smiles twitching on their faces.

"Ah! But I did manage to dodge that poop though!" Miranda gave a smug snort of laughter – though it looked rather disturbing paired with her gloomy aura - and smiled to herself.

 _This woman... She sounds like she's losing it.._

Lenalee managed to pull herself together, pushing back the surprise she felt towards Miranda's personality. "Miss Miranda, do you remember everything that's happened since the town started rewinding?"

"Yes, but everyone else seems to have forgotten..." At this reminder, Miranda became increasingly distraught. " _You have to help me! Please!_ " She lunged over the table to grab Allen's collar, wailing into his face, not even noticing his panicked squeal at her horrifying expression up close. "I'm going to go mad at this rate!"

"J-just calm down first!" Allen forced a placating smile onto his face, though the twitching eye gave it away. "We'll help you! We're going to help you! Right, Lenalee?"

"Eh?" She startled, not expecting to be dragged into this situation, before smiling at Miranda. "Y-yes, of course! We just need to find the source first! Something had to have happened on the first October 28. Do you have any idea?"

"Noo!" Miranda wailed even harder, still not letting go of Allen. "I went to sleep and it was October 28 again before I knew it!"

Allen grimaced before tensing up, his left eye activating again, alerting him to the four men at the bar counter behind.

 _Akuma!_

He gently pried her hands off of his collar, before removing his left glove, exposing the red mottled skin of his parasitic Innocence. "It seems that they've noticed that you are the only one unaffected by this town's phenomenon too. I'm certain it's because you came in contact with the Innocence causing this."

Lenalee stood up as well, preparing to activate her Innocence at a moment's notice. Miranda screamed as the four men transformed into their monstrous akuma forms.

Lenalee swiftly dispatched of one of the akuma with a solid kick with her Innocence, darting out from behind Allen's cover the moment there was a lapse in akuma fire. She may be female, but Lenalee was definitely no damsel in distress.

Taking advantage of their higher numbers, one of the akuma reached out for Miranda, pale and frozen to the spot in fear, while the two exorcists were busy with the others. Before it could grab her though, a long enlarged adamantine arm grabbed him and flung him into the wall hard.

"Lenalee!" Allen shouted as he let loose a barrage of energy beams with his cannon form to block the akuma from advancing. "Leave first and take Miranda with you! Your Dark Boots can get you to her house first before any of them!"

"Got it!" Dodging the dark energy beams of the akuma with a graceful backflip in the air, Lenalee landed in front of Miranda, feet touching the ground for only a moment, before she was up in the air again, speeding away with Miranda in her arms.

Allen fired at the akuma again, blocking them from following after Lenalee. He clenched his teeth, eyeing the three level 2 akuma in front of him.

 _This wasn't going to be easy.._

"Sound Pulse!" The green pumpkin-shaped akuma cried, sending out a supersonic wave.

 _My head's going to explode!_

Allen choked back a shout of pain, his right hand coming up to grab his head. That scream was giving him a splitting headache and ruining his ability to focus. Gritting his teeth, he rolled to the side in a somersault, avoiding the volley of sickle-shaped dark energy from the grey akuma. Coming to a stop, he spotted the grey akuma coming at him with its claws and quickly raised his arm to block. He traded blows with that grey akuma for a while, swiping at each other back and forth, neither one giving ground when suddenly, the pink-haired akuma loomed over him from behind. It nearly pummeled him to the ground, striking the floor of the bar instead with both hands and then, unexpectedly spat out a blue stream of icy fire.

The icy fire caught Allen on his shoulder despite jumping away, sending a sharp lance of pain through his body, causing him to let out a cry as he fell to his knees.

"Icy Fire!" The pink-haired akuma howled in laughter, relishing the sight of the exorcist in pain. "If it so much as touches you, it'll burn your flesh off you in an instant!"

"Let's cut him, let's cut him!" The grey akuma chanted.

"No, no! Let's scramble his brains with my voice!" The pumpkin akuma protested.

"…" The three akuma turned to each other, forgetting that their target was right in front of them and that they were currently in the middle of a fight.

"We're burning him."

"No, cutting him!"

"No! His brain!"

They glared at each other, disgruntled, before raising their fists above their heads. "Rock, scissors, pape-!"

 _BANG. BANG. BANG._

"Sorry, my finger slipped."

"What are you talking about, you bastard?! You don't even have a finger! Attacking us when we're not paying attention isn't fair!"

"What idiot would wait?" Allen deadpanned, his dark side emerging for a fleeting moment. He couldn't believe that this was what he was stuck dealing with. Childish akuma. He really wanted to send them off now.

"Kill him!" They roared.

 _ **Hold it right there. Looks like you guys are having fun.**_

The three akuma froze mid-pounce at the disembodied voice echoing ominously through their heads.

 _ **Have you forgotten that you were supposed to collect the Innocence? Get back here. Now.**_

Immediately, the three akuma shot off, bursting through the roof, leaving Allen clueless at to what just happened.

"Allen! Are you alright?" Lenalee touched down outside, having come back to check on her comrade, running into the ruined bar. Her eyes flickered over the debris and the empty area. "Did you manage to kill them?"

"..No, they just suddenly backed off.." He trailed off, still staring blankly at where the three akuma had just been, perplexed with their behavior.

 _It looked like they really wanted to kill me, though.._

* * *

The blue-eyed girl stiffened. There was a weird feeling bubbling up in her gut. Something that was causing her to tremble, practically vibrating.

In fear? Or was it in anticipation? Anger? Excitement? Dread?

Whatever it was, she couldn't put her finger on it but she was looking forward to whatever was coming.

She could sense it.

 _One of them was here._

A wide grin – borderline maniacal – slowly spread across her lips.

 _Let the fun begin._

* * *

 _A/N: A little short but this is sort of a prologue-ish chapter. The length of the chapters kind of depends on where I want it to end so some might end up short and some might be long. Do you actually prefer short or long chapters? And I apologize for the action scenes because writing the fights out is so awkward to me_

 _As usual, any reviews would be greatly appreciated!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC!**

 _A/N: Sorry, neither Lavi nor OC will be appearing yet! And thank you,_ _ **crownclown25**_ _and_ _ **joeykun938**_ _for the favourites!_

* * *

 **-CHAPTER 2-**

* * *

"Noooo! Don't come in!"

The two exorcists could only share uncertain looks, faced with the sight of Miranda quivering and wailing like a banshee while huddled on top of a table. The expression on her face said that she would have liked to throw Allen out of her house – given that she had been screaming about his metamorphosing arm _'His hand! His hand just-!'_ and how they just barged in (even though the door was unlocked) – if only she could muster up enough courage to even go near him.

"Calm down, Miranda!" Lenalee felt like crying herself. Dealing with her brother's tantrums suddenly seemed so much easier.

" _How am I supposed to calm down?!_ " Miranda gestured wildly. Already on the verge of a mental breakdown, Lenalee's pacifying attempt didn't have as much impact on the crying woman as she thought it would. Allen wisely kept silent, not wanting to draw attention back to him (and his arm) to not agitate Miranda further, only smiling uncomfortably.

"You're- Ah! No!" A small key on a necklace chain slipped out from under Miranda's dress collar, the delicate chain snapping from her frantic movements.

Allen and Lenalee let out gasps of shock as the woman instantly lunged for it, toppling off the table in the process. It had all happened so fast that Miranda was already on the ground by the time their exorcist reflexes had kicked in. Scrambling over quickly – despite her rough landing – to where the pendant had landed, Miranda snatched it up and cradled it tightly to her chest, heaving a sigh of relief. It was obviously something she treasured greatly.

Lenalee bent down, smiling at Miranda. "Is that a clock spring? Does it belong to that over there?"

They both turned to look at the tall grandfather clock sitting in the corner.

Miranda fidgeted nervously under their gazes. "Yes, it does. It might sound ridiculous but it's really precious to me."

"Don't say that!" Lenalee scolded her gently, yet firmly. "Everyone has that something that is precious to them. I'm sure that clock holds a lot of treasured memories to you."

Miranda inwardly wailed at the kindness Lenalee displayed towards her, barely resisting bursting into tears again. Her! Of all people. How could she even have thought of the white-haired boy as a monster when he was clearly not one? The two of them had saved her, and even brought her home to safety away from those _real_ monsters. Oh, she was such an ungrateful wrench!

"You know how there are those kinds of people who can't do anything no matter what they try or how hard they try..." Miranda started, getting lost in the memories of her past struggles. "I'm one of them. I was always slower than everyone else. No matter what it was, they always did so much better than me. Even when I started working, I couldn't do anything right, and always got fired soon. And then the people started calling me a plague; Miranda the Unlucky Woman, the symbol of bad luck."

It hurt Lenalee's heart to see the woman who had clearly just been unfortunate through no fault of her own to speak of herself in such a self-deprecating way. Just because you did not excel in areas that others did didn't mean that you were useless after all. Everyone has their own faults and specialties of their own.

' _Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb trees, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.'_ As a wise man once said.

"I've never been thanked. That means I've never been useful in any way to anyone." Miranda continued, still smiling that sad smile as though it was natural for her to be this way, and to be treated so. "I just wanted to be appreciated, to know that my existence was helpful to someone, even if it was just a little. To be acknowledged that I was a human being… And then, I saw it."

"That clock was useless too, sitting outside the shop, about to be thrown away. It was like looking in a mirror. The shopkeeper said it didn't work, but when I tried winding it, the clock hands moved and it chimed. The beautiful chimes from the clock that no one else could turn. It somehow resonated deeply with my soul. It felt like it was accepting me, even with all my shortcomings. So, it's my most prized possession. It's the only thing that needs me, after all."

"Actually," Allen hesitantly started. "We need you too."

"Eh?" Miranda startled, looking up at him.

"As we mentioned before," He glanced at Lenalee, who gave him a nod. "You're the only one in this town unaffected by the time loop. I'm certain it's because you've came in contact with the Innocence causing this."

"..Innocence? What's that?"

"It is a material with mysterious properties, often called God's own crystal. The Innocence often causes paranormal phenomena. Those monsters who attacked us earlier are called 'akuma', and they seek to destroy Innocence." Allen explained in a serious tone.

Lenalee continued. "We're exorcists, from an organization called the Black Order. We work to recover the Innocence and defeat akuma."

"That's why I was attacked?!" Miranda recoiled from them again, though she managed to retain some of her composure and not go into a fit again. "But I've never seen anything with such amazing powers! Are you sure it's me?"

"Yes, I'm sure you've touched it somewhere." Allen smiled encouragingly. "So, come on, let's look for it together."

"Isn't that your job?! I can't do anything!" Miranda crawled away from them, seemingly back in her self-deprecating misery again. "You both have superhuman powers, don't you? Then, please hurry up and save this town!"

 _Don't place this kind of expectation on me! I'm the Unlucky Woman! There's no way I can help you do anything! I don't want to burden you.._

"We will. But not without you. We need your help. You're connected to what's happening in this town. Please help us, Miranda!" Allen pleaded. "Let's get the real tomorrow to come."

Miranda hesitated, looking like she desperately wanted to stay out of it but yet, couldn't resist Allen's sincere plea (and puppy dog eyes).

Lenalee knew there was a high chance Miranda would help them. Miranda was just that kind of person after all. Kind and hardworking, to a fault. Also, hadn't she just admitted that she wanted to be of help to someone? She only needed to get rid of her fear of failing. Neither her nor Allen would blame Miranda in any case even if they failed. If anything, it would be their faults instead.

* * *

"Nothing really caught my attention.." Allen remarked, a little troubled at how their lead had become a dead end again.

"Me too.." Lenalee sighed.

Miranda only kept silent, equally as or perhaps even more discouraged than them.

The three had just returned back to Miranda's home. With Miranda agreeing to help them, the two teenagers had suggested that they retrace her daily routine to see whether they could sense the presence of the Innocence since it was established that the woman had touched it somewhere.

"Should we try- Miranda?" Lenalee stared puzzled at the woman who had suddenly stood up. "Do you have an idea?"

The clock struck midnight, starting to chime.

"Eh? You're going to bed?!" Allen cried out in shock. Miranda had just marched over to the bed without a word and promptly conked out upon lying down.

"She's acting strange, to suddenly go to bed mid-conversation.." Lenalee mused, eyes flickering over the room to see if she could find any reason for Miranda's behavior.

 _The clock is.. silent. The chimes have finished?_

"Allen! Look at that!" She yelped, drawing his attention to the many clock faces of all shapes and sizes appearing on the walls of Miranda's bedroom. They were all shimmering a soft golden colour. "They're all over the town's buildings as well!"

"W-what's happening?!" Allen's gaze snapped to the grandfather clock as the hands started ticking backwards. "It's the clock!"

They both stared, stunned speechless. Lenalee squeaked, nearly getting blown over as all the clock faces were sucked towards the grandfather clock.

"Hang on, Lenalee!" Allen reached out a hand for her, his other hand holding tightly onto the wall. She barely managed to grab hold of his outstretched hand, regaining her balance and planting her feet firmly on the floor.

 _Wait, is that-?!_

"It's sucking in today's time!" They could clearly see the images of the events that happened today, recognizing their faces and the familiar akuma in the clock faces as they zoomed past.

And then, as the last clock face disappeared into the grandfather clock, there was a resounding final _tick_ from the clock hands of the grandfather clock.

Bright sunshine shone through the open window.

" _It's morning?!"_ Allen exclaimed in disbelief.

 _It was only night not even a minute ago! What in the world?!_

"Huh?" Allen and Lenalee instantly whipped back around, spotting Miranda sitting upright in bed. She stared at them confusedly. "I don't remember getting in bed..?"

They could only gape back at her, goggle-eyed, still reeling themselves at what they had just witnessed.

* * *

"Lenalee! Look at this!"

Both women turned around at Allen's voice, only to scream in horror at the sight.

"Wha-what have you done, Allen?! How are you doing that?!"

"My clock!" Miranda gasped, hands clutching at her face in an expression eerily similar to the iconic 'Scream'.

There was a wide smile on his face. It would have been nothing out of the norm. Except that only his head and arms were sticking out of the grandfather clock. "I'm a clock man!"

"Don't worry. I _can't touch_ this clock." Allen reassured them, stepping out of the clock quickly.

Lenalee thought dryly that that was a good move. Miranda looked like she was a inch away from a heart attack if Allen had stayed any longer in the clock. The woman had stumbled over to the clock the moment he stepped out and grasped it in a loose hug, still staring at Allen, horrified.

He waved a hand towards the clock. "I just tried touching it, and see?" His arm disappeared into the surface of the clock, like the clock wasn't there at all, hand popping back up to wave at them though his elbow still remained inside the clock.

"Ah, you went though it!"

"Seems like the only person who can touch it is its owner, Miranda."

"Eh?" Miranda's eyes bulged out. Who'd have thought that the clock she picked up coincidentally could have turned out to possess such a weird ability?

"This must be the Innocence for sure." Allen shared a glance with Lenalee, both remembering what had appeared to be the clock rewinding time earlier.

"..This is what is causing the town to be weird?" Miranda glanced dubiously at the clock. A thought struck her and she gasped in horror, turning a frightful glare coupled with an ominous aura on them. "Don't tell me.. you plan on destroying it? It's my friend.."

"Calm down. Please." The two exorcists paled, hands instantly flying up in the _I-mean-no-harm-I-surrender_ pose, the words blurting out of their mouths in unison before they knew it. Miranda truly was a force to behold. She was terrifying and creepy all in one package.

"Miranda, you really don't know what could have happened to cause this? There must be a reason for the clock to do this. Think back to the first October 28th."

"That day," Miranda shrank in on herself, head in her arms. "I was fired for the hundredth time.. and-"

" _I hate it. I hate it.." Miranda sobbed, tears and snot alike pouring down her face. She chugged a bottle of alcohol, blindly reaching for the next one. Empty and new bottles were littered across the floor around her._

 _How could the number of times I've been fired reach the triple digits?! Am I really so worthless?_

" _Every day, nothing good ever happens! There's no silver lining, no bright side! I don't care about life anymore.."_

 _She slumped against the grandfather clock, legs sprawled out uncaringly, fingers stubbornly clutching onto the nearly empty bottle of alcohol._

" _I wish.. tomorrow wouldn't come."_

"Ah." Miranda held her chin between her index finger and thumb in a thoughtful pose. "I think it's that..?"

She turned to look at the two exorcists. They gawked at her, eyes and mouth open wide.

 _It is that!_

"The Innocence granted your wish!"

"B-but I was just complaining to myself.. And first of all, it's a clock! Why would it do that?!" Miranda wailed, just as clueless about this whole situation.

"Miranda," Lenalee reached out, gently taking Miranda's hand in her own, softening Allen's unintended but accusing tone. "Could you be the accommodator of this Innocence..?"

"Eh?!" Allen reared back in shock. Was it so easy to find an accommodator? "You think so?"

"Yes, if the clock responded to Miranda's wish, they may be synchronizing."

"What? What's an accommodator? Synchronizing?" The woman in question mumbled, utterly lost.

"Miranda!" Allen unconsciously raised his voice in his eagerness. "Tell the clock to stop what's happening!"

"Uh.." She tentatively pressed her hands against the clock, glancing at the two teenagers unsurely. "Clock, please return this town's time to what it should be."

The moment the words left her lips, the two were already running for the newspaper.

Flinging it open dramatically, their eyes scanned it and narrowed in on the top.

 _October 28._

"It.. didn't change." Their disappointment was practically tangible.

Miranda wilted behind them.

 _Oh well.._

* * *

"Welcome! The theatre's newest show ' _The Pumpkin and the Witch_ ' opens today! Would you like a ticket?"

There was a long line of people queueing up in front of the woman dressed in a witch's costume. The male behind her dressed normally in a shirt and vest with pants but had pumpkin as a head instead. He was balancing on a large ball juggling swords, attracting all the awed children and adults.

"Good job!" The owner of the theatre roughly patted the both of them on the shoulder, before throwing over his shoulder as he left. "Take a break! If it continues like this, we'll hire you full-time!"

"Allen!" A call of his name brought his attention to the girl standing at the corner of the building.

Miranda waved him off with a smile, clearly in a better mood now. She wanted to bask in the happy attitude the townspeople were treating her with a little more anyway.

Eyeing her carefully to make certain, Allen finally nodded and waved before jogging over to Lenalee with a smile.

"How's the job?"

"Alright. If it goes well, he said he'll hire us full-time." He grinned.

"Really? That's great!" She beamed.

After Miranda's failed attempt in controlling the clock's powers, they had thought up another plan. Since Miranda's wish and agony at being unsuccessful was the root cause, they decided that the most important thing that needed to be resolved first was her negative energy and outlook. Their plan was constructed around the assumption that time would start moving again if Miranda got a job and in turn, a positive mindset on life.

"The akuma are staying low too.." Allen heaved a sigh of relief. "I don't know why they are, but I'm glad. I hope we can finish this while we have the chance."

"Me too. Miranda's been fired five times in the past three days.." Lenalee shook her head, somewhat amazed at the woman's inability to keep a job.

"Ah! Hey, Mr. Pumpkin!" A blue-haired girl strode up to them, carrying a pink umbrella in one hand and a lollipop in the other. "Where do I get tickets for ' _The Pumpkin and the Witch_ '?"

"Oh!" Allen perked up, instantly transitioning back into the entertainer mode, hurriedly throwing a 'See you later' at Lenalee as he ushered the girl over back to the entrance of the theatre. "Thank you for your purchase! Tickets are available over this way!"

"Good luck!" Lenalee called out as he left. _He's so chipper.._

As Allen and the young girl neared the theatre though, there were sounds of shouting.

 _What's going on?_

"What?!" _That's the voice of the owner.._ "All the money got pickpocketed?!"

"I-I'm sorry.."

Immediately, Allen felt the familiar anger at injustice welling up in him at the sight of Miranda cowering on the floor at the feet of the angry owner of the theatre, yelling until his face had turned a glaring shade of red.

"You idiot!"

 _Oh, no._

He was torn. Allen really didn't want Miranda to get fired again. She was doing so well, starting to smile and being happier. Things were finally looking up. But if that was the sort of man she had to work under.. Suddenly, thinking of his master, General Cross, and that theatre owner, he felt a rush of gratitude for Komui's caring heart – despite all the weird pathetic sister complex and evil scientist moments – towards all the staff of the Black Order, whether exorcist or finder.

 _Sorry, Mr. Komui. I promise not to look at you so disgustingly whenever you have one of your moments from now on!_

"Hang tight, little girl." Allen muttered, sparing her an apologetic pat on the shoulder before leaving her to run to Miranda's side. He dropped to his knees beside her, fingers curling around her arm comfortingly. "Miranda."

"Allen!" Her face was exceedingly pale, voice weak and trembling. "I-I'm sorry! I was selling the ticket to someone and.."

"It's alright. Did you see the pickpocket?" His voice was calm and a balm to her frayed nerves, despite the firm inquiry.

"H-he had long hair and was wearing a brown jacket. He ran that way!" Miranda stuttered out, voice a little stronger due to the soothing effect his gentle touch and voice had on her. Such a young boy, compared to her age, yet so dependable and reassuring already.

"I'll look from up here, Allen!"

Allen only saw a flash of black and green as Lenalee jumped up onto the rooftops, already dashing away in pursuit of the culprit.

"A-allen.." Miranda whimpered.

"Don't worry." He lifted the pumpkin mask to give her a warm smile. "We'll catch him. Everything's going to be fine."

And then, he was off, manoeuvring through the crowd of people easily in the direction Miranda had pointed out.

(Later, Allen realized it was quite the careless move to leave Miranda – a new unexperienced accommodator – behind alone when she was being targeted. Hindsight is 20/20, after all.)

Running through the streets, Lenalee jumping down to join him after a while, they cornered the pickpocket against a wall in a dead-end alley.

Allen gasped, his eye activating belatedly as the human form burst into the pink-haired akuma from before. It was at times like this, he wished his eye – unwanted as it was – had a wider range of detection.

"It's a trap!" He wanted to curse.

The akuma smirked widely. "We've got the woman you've been protecting. Lady Road has captured her!"

 _Lady Road.. Who's that?_

But there was no time for pondering.

The akuma immediately spat out a stream of blue fire, freezing over the whole alley and sending shivers through him.

"Allen!" Lenalee screamed in warning, spotting the other two akuma of the trio they saw before appearing from behind them, cutting off the exit from the alley.

Allen wanted to curse. "We can't do anything but deal with them first!"

As if on cue, the two of them leapt forward in synchronized movement to face the attacks of the three akuma. It took only a moment for everything to turn disastrous. One moment he was nimbly dodging the energy slices one of the akuma was shooting at him, the next, he had his foot caught and was literally frozen to the spot.

 _Oh no._

The next thing he felt was the fire burning so hot it was cold. His arm, reflexively going up to shield his head, couldn't even block the brunt of the blow. Everything hurt so agonizingly it ripped a scream out of his throat.

The last thing he remembered was hearing Lenalee's panicked cry of his name.

And then, he slipped into the comforting darkness.

* * *

 _A/N: Reviews would be appreciated_ :) _And the OC will most probably be showing up next chapter, the finale to the Rewinding Town Arc! Still a while for Lavi to appear though!_


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC!**

 _A/N: First of all, this isn't the finale chapter to this arc! It turned out longer than I thought and I had to split it.._

 _Thank you all for continuing reading, and special thanks to all the reviewers! It really brightens my mood every time I see I've got a review!_ :)) _Don't feel shy to leave some feedback even if it's just a ramble or a 'I like it!'!_

 _ **SheikahLover**_ _: Thank you very much for your long reviews! Happy to know that I'm not boring my readers by just recapping the events and that I got the point across in making the oc interesting and mysterious! It's going to drive Lavi up the wall in later chapters. The proper term would be 'girl' as you'll see in the later part of this chapter or actually I don't know HAHA_ ;) _Her proper introduction is still far away though!_

 _ **crownclown25**_ _: Thank you! Glad to hear that haha It's quite difficult to find Lavi/oc stories in this fandom surprisingly :(_

 _ **Celia**_ _: Thank you thank you! HAHA I like spazzing reviews like this too. It clicks well with my inner fangirl too haha As requested, here's more for you!_ :)

* * *

 **-CHAPTER 3-**

* * *

CLANK. CLANK.

 _What was that? So noisy.._

CLANK.

 _Why wouldn't it stop?_

 _Just leave me be.._

He didn't want to leave this blissful darkness, the darkness that wrapped around him so comfortingly like a warm blanket but that repetitive noise dragged him closer to the light each time.

Finally, grey eyes fluttering open, Allen came back to the waking world.

He became vaguely aware of a burning pain in his arm, but it was muted. Painful, but kind of numb at the same time. Negligible to his hazed and groggy mind.

 _Where am I..?_

He could barely see, but what little he saw, he couldn't recognize. His eyes weren't exactly working to their full potential; everything just kind of looked like blurry blobs of purples, blues and yellows.

A faint whimper of his name to the side reached his ears.

Blinking blearily – it took tremendous effort to not let his eyelids close for longer than a blink – he summoned what meagre scraps of his energy he could to turn his head. Someone was calling him..

"Allen.."

Oh, it was only Miranda.. _Wait_.

It was Miranda, but her hands were nailed to her grandfather clock, red tracking down her pale wrists and arms.

At the sight, everything came rushing back to him. Miranda, the clock – her Innocence! – and the rewinding town, Lenalee and the three akuma-

"Ow!" The stabbing pain in his arm intensified as his awareness came back. A glance to the side told him the reason why, and also revealed the source of the annoying _clank_ sounds.

An akuma – the pumpkin one – was nailing his arm to the wall he was slumped against. He glared, gritting his teeth against the pain. There was no way he was going to give it the satisfaction of hearing his pain anymore. The akuma still had the nerve to grin at him, bringing the hammer down one final time for effect as he stared Allen in the eyes.

"Oh, are you awake, boy?"

His head whipped to where the familiar voice, light and innocent-sounding, had come from behind the other two akuma.

"You-!" It was that girl! The young blue-haired girl that had wanted to buy tickets! But it was as though the aura she exuded had done a one-eighty. Before, it had been merely full of childish exuberance. Now, it was still exuberant, but in a malicious way. He tensed up. He could clearly tell that something was off here, but what? And where were they?!

The girl shifted slightly, turning to face him, and he caught a glimpse of green and purple in the huge armchair behind her.

"Lenalee!" Allen cried out. Worry immediately flooded him, his eyes taking in the way Lenalee was unresponsive and motionless. She was weirdly dressed up in a ballgown complete with perfectly curled hair, nary a strand out of place. She looked like a doll on display, he thought with growing horror.

"Lenalee? Aw, what a cute name!" The girl cooed, affectionately cradling Lenalee's head in a loose hug.

"Y-you're that girl who came to buy a ticket.. You're ' _Road'_?"

He stared hard, activating his eye, but there was no tormented human soul bound in chains to be seen. He ruled out the suspicion that she was an akuma still in her human disguise. If she was an akuma, he would have sensed it before when she had walked up to him and Lenalee. "You're not an akuma.. _What are you?_ "

" _I'm human_." She snickered. "What's with that face? Can't humans and akuma get along?"

"Akuma.. are weapons created by the Earl to kill humans!" Everything in his soul rebelled against the thought of akuma and humans being- He didn't even want to think it. Sure, he had no hatred or anger for the unfortunate humans who drowned in their grief and struck a deal with the Earl, they were merely mislead and tricked. But humans that knew and willingly went along with, aiding the akuma to kill humans? As someone that always wanted to help and protect, whether it be humans or the souls trapped in akuma, he didn't know what to think about a human willing to kill humans.

The girl replied in patronizing tone, looking at him as though he was a child that didn't understand even the simplest of simple things. "Weapons exist so that humans can kill one another, didn't you realize?"

He swallowed hard, unease thrumming through his whole body. Something was bad here, really really _bad_. It was starting to feel like he was in over his head.

And then, as she spoke, the strangest thing occurred right before his very eyes.

"The Earl is our kin. We're the chosen ones; the true apostles chosen by God himself!"

Her skin gradually changed color in a gradation effect, turning a shade of dark grey. A shade that he had never seen any human possess. Her dark eyes turning into golden-amber orbs, strangely reminiscent of that like a cat or owl. And the most startling of all, from the center of her forehead, black cross markings not unlike the one on the back of his hand started appearing, spreading across her forehead.

He could only stare in dread, like the way people could only stare frozen in horror when a car was speeding towards them, and for a moment, it felt like he was staring into the face of _death_.

" _We're the Clan of Noah._ "

* * *

"Human.." Allen could hardly fathom it.

Human. But why? How? _WHY?_

A tinkling laughter rang through the air, derisive and mocking. "Why are you so mad?" She mused. "You even ripped your arm out. Doesn't it hurt?"

She was even closer to him now, but he was too weak to do anything and he didn't want to satisfy her with an answer. And yes, his arm hurt. He glanced at it surreptitiously. There were holes in it, one for each nail, and it didn't look like it would be healing anytime soon. But he didn't know what he would do anyway. Attack her? Run away? She was human, but on the opposing side.. What was he supposed to do?

Road knelt down beside him, slowly bringing her arms around his neck and pressing her body against his. He stiffened. He could feel her breath puffing against his neck, gently ruffling his hair.

"I'm warm, aren't I? Can you feel my heartbeat?" Her lips curved into a smile against his skin. "Feels like two humans embracing, doesn't it?"

His finger twitched, instantly concluding that his arm was still responsive enough despite the damage. Within the next moment, his clawed fingers were less than an inch away from the back of Road's head.

"We're the same.. We're both humans, but why are you-"

"The same..? You're a little wrong about that." His hand had already begun to retreat but she grabbed it with quick movements, striking herself in the head with it.

"What?! You-to yourself-why?!" Allen stared wide-eyed as Road's body fell limply to the floor in disbelief. He really didn't understand just what was going on here.

The corpse suddenly flung itself back up again, to his shock. He couldn't move an inch as her hand reached out to fist his collar. He barely resisted flinching away, nausea rising up in him at the sight of her face – so mangled and bloody he was surprised it wasn't falling apart in pieces – up close.

Yet, the voice that came out of that mutilated face was as light and as undamaged as it was before without even a hint of pain. "We're the descendants of Noah, the oldest apostle in human history. We inherited his genes, and we're superhumans."

Distracted by her ominous words, it happened before he knew it.

There was a flash of pink, and then there was pain, tearing a tortured yell from the back of his throat.

Road had stabbed a candle into his eye, his akuma-detecting left eye.

In between the throes of pain, biting his cheek hard to keep his whimpers in, he heard her wicked cackles, completely relishing in his pain.

"I really couldn't care less about killing you wimpy humans. You should all die." Her grin was utterly sinister, it nearly sent shivers down his spine. Her face had also totally recovered, flawless grey skin in place of the bloody red muscles and tissues from before.

 _How is it possible to heal so fast? From such a grave injury inflicted by his Innocence, no less?_

"Even God wishes for the end of the world." Road sneered. "That's why God gave us the Earl and akuma."

 _NO._

Allen wouldn't believe that.

 _Never_.

He spat out through clenched teeth, glaring fiercely. "That's not God, that's the devil!"

Ignoring the pain that surged through his arm, he willed his arm to transform into cannon form, preparing to shoot her. He didn't care whether she was human or not now.

"It doesn't matter either way. You can't kill me, you know."

Before he could even fire a shot, the three akuma appeared in front of Road, ready to defend her and attack him.

 _Oh no! I forgot about them!_

He caught sight of the smirk on Road's face before the simultaneous attacks of the akuma threw him back into the wall, hitting his head hard. He slumped down onto the floor, unmoving. Everything went black once again.

"He's wounded.. three akuma must be too much for him, I guess." The words themselves could have been sympathetic but her tone was impassively cold, as though the thought of killing Allen really didn't faze her at all.

"Allen.." Miranda whimpered again, drawing the girl's attention over to her.

"I suppose it's time I 'released' you too." At Road's non-verbal command, a multitude of candles floated up in the air, pointy ends all directed straight at Miranda. There was nowhere she could run to even if her hands were freed from the clock; there was just that many candles.

"N-no.. H-help me..!" The woman cowered, turning away and hiding her face in the clock.

Unexpectedly, though, there was no pain. Only warmth against her back.

Shaking like a leaf, Miranda looked up.

"Allen!" He was covering her, protecting both her and her clock with his Innocence arm. But she could see that Allen was pretty much on the brink of collapsing. There was so much blood.. from everywhere. His eye, his head, his arm..

With a grunt of exertion from him, the nails in her hands by yanked out by his free human hand and without a second thought, she scrambled away out of the line of fire as far as she could as soon as the barrage of candles died down. It was as if the hounds of hell were nipping at her heels, the speed she crawled away at.

But Allen wasn't with her. In her safe spot, she was alone.

Her head whipped around, back to where the clock was, only to see Allen kneeling on the ground, looking utterly sapped of strength.

"Allen?! Allen!" No matter how she called him, he wouldn't move.

"Allen! Please.. d-don't die! P-please don't die!" She sniffled, tears running down her face, choking her up.

"Miranda.. I'm.. alright.." Somehow, he managed to twist his lips up in a weak smile, intended to comfort her, but it only made her more terrified. For once, he wasn't reassuring at all.

He truly looked like he was going to fade away any moment now.

 _No._

Her hands clenched tightly.

 _No. Not Allen._

"Woman," The akuma's voice was deadly menacing. "What do you think you're doing?"

Before she knew it, she found herself crouched over the boy like he had been to her while protecting her before, cradling his wounded form to her chest.

"R-really.. w-what am I doing..?" Miranda blanched, trembling so heavily she was surprised she managed to keep hold of Allen in her arms, at the sight of the akuma preparing to attack her. She didn't know either, her body had moved on its own. The only thing she was certain of was that she didn't want to abandon Allen, she wouldn't leave behind the boy who had done nothing but try to help her with his utmost, worthless as she was.

Miranda flinched, eyes involuntarily shutting at the explosive light that suddenly lit up the whole area, hugging Allen tightly to her. If she was going to be useless and die anyway, at least she had the meagre hope that her body could provide some protection to Allen. She prepared herself for her death, at least maybe she would finally be useful; protecting the kind, kind boy in her arms.

There was nothing but light, searing the back of her eyelids a glowing red.

Her fingers twitched. She could still feel Allen and her hands still ached, so perhaps she wasn't dead?

She assumed the light had died down; she didn't see spots behind her eyelids anymore. Miranda slowly, cautiously cracked her eyes opened a fraction. She didn't want to get blinded again, after all, in the event that she was mistaken.

"Hey."

At the decidedly familiar female voice that she knew wasn't Road or Lenalee, her eyes snapped fully open in shock.

* * *

" _You! You there! Wait, please!" Miranda pleaded, desperately trying not to lose sight of her in the crowd._

" _Hello." The beautiful blue-eyed woman – girl? She looked young, like she was in her teenage years, barely an adult at most – greeted in a cordial manner. Though Miranda felt weirdly unsettled by her smile. There was something not malicious but disconcerting all the same about the knowing way her lips curled upwards. The lady oddly reminded her of a cat that had gotten the cream. "Is something the matter?"_

 _However, she dismissed it. That wasn't the important thing right now._

 _She rushed up to her and grabbed her hands. She was solid, and real. Miranda could feel the body heat through their gloves. Surely, this lady was no figment of her imagination! "You- You're different! I've never seen you before! Not in yesterday's 'today'!"_

 _The girl quirked a finely arched eyebrow, puzzled at the weird phrasing but played along like any decent person would do. "Is that so? I've only been here a few days after all."_

" _Yes!" Miranda laughed, pumping their hands up and down in her glee. "Yes! It's ended! Today's a different 'today'!"_

" _I don't think meeting me warrants such a reaction. I'm nothing special." The lady chuckled, her striking blue eyes twinkling. "It's very nice to meet you too."_

 _After that, they had parted amicably with a promise of having tea sometime and Miranda had gone home with a skip in her step._

 _And then, the next morning, Miranda had woken up only to see that the newspaper still had October 28 as the date. And the neighbors had started arguing again at exactly the same time and with the exact same words as yesterday._

 _Miranda was stunned, to say the least._

 _No! Hadn't the loop been broken? Why was she still stuck repeating October 28?_

 _That lady! If she found her again – she was the only thing that was different from the usual routine of things that had happened ever since the 28_ _th_ _had started repeating, the first thing that had made today not 'today' – then perhaps –!_

 _But no matter how she looked around that same area, she had seen neither hide nor hair of that blue-eyed lady again._

 _So, Miranda had chalked the sighting of that lady up to a hallucination of sorts, and miserably resigned herself to continue repeating October 28. Her desperation to escape was probably just that strong to induce such a real hallucination._

She was only a hallucination. Or she was _supposed_ to be a hallucination.

Yet, that same lady was standing right in front of her eyes now.

How was that possible?

The same deep blue eyes the color of the ocean, the same platinum blonde shoulder-length hair.

Only her attire was different. She had been wearing a long dress before, something so common for an ordinary woman that no one would ever take a second look at, paired with a parasol. But now, she had on a white shirt under some sort of a leather brown corset, and black shorts with black stockings and boots.

She looked ready for battle, giving off the aura of a deadly yet elegant warrior princess, light brown cloak billowing around her shoulders.

Miranda couldn't believe it.

She wasn't a hallucination? Not a figment of her imagination she had conjured up from her weak and despairing mind?

And then, while Miranda's mind was still reeling from her sudden reappearance, the lady in question turned around, eyes finding hers almost immediately. The corner of her lips slowly curled upwards in that same knowing half-smirk half-smile.

"Hello, Miss Miranda."


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: I've never realized how difficult it was to write while not giving away the name of one of two females.. So many 'she's and 'her's, I'm starting to get confused myself lol And I'm starting to run out of words to describe my oc; blue-eyed woman, girl, lady, female, etc. What more is there? I was intending on not giving her name until the next chapter but I couldn't take it anymore!_

 _ **SheikahLover**_ _: No worries, I usually only expect one review per reader so I'm already very grateful for you reviewing every chapter! Thank you for your kind words! As excited as you are for the next chapters, I'm as hyped up to write!_

 _To all my other readers, thank you for all your views and follows/favorites! They're all food for my writing haha Hope y'all enjoy this chapter! It's a little longer to make up for the wait. Exam period is finally over! I didn't even have the chance to touch any of my stories for the past two weeks so it took a while to get this out_ :(

* * *

 **-CHAPTER 4-**

* * *

"Miss Miranda," The blue-eyed girl's brows furrowed. "If we don't get that boy medical attention immediately, he is going to die."

"Y-you-can you-"

"I can't heal wounds. And coming in here is unfortunately, a one-time deal." She grimaced.

At that statement, the hope rising in Miranda was quenched in an instant. Gazing at the boy in her lap, losing more and more blood with each passing moment, she was struck with pure terror.

"Don't worry. I'm going to defeat that Noah, and then we can all escape. No one will die here."

There was a warm quality to her tone, and for a moment, Miranda _believed_.

Then, _reality_ crashed in.

"T-there's no way! For you to go up against all of them alone-! It's impossible!"

"There's no way ' _there's no way_ '. My blood practically denies impossibility." A grin grew on her face, visibly excited, though it faltered when she caught sight of Miranda's expression. She sighed, looking at her reproachfully. "Miss Miranda, when will you realize that if there's something you want, you only have to reach out and grab it with your hands? Make it yours! If you give up before even trying, nothing will ever change."

The girl flicked Miranda on the forehead gently. The woman didn't react, brain working furiously to try to process the strange new lady's words. "As hopeless as it may seem now, I believe with my whole heart that everyone was born for a reason. You simply haven't found it yet. Learn to have some confidence in your own abilities!"

But still, Miranda couldn't believe. The memories of all her failed attempts, the sense of utter self-loathing derived from the countless years of receiving barbed taunts and insults from her fellow townspeople..

 _Make it mine.. How can she make it sound so easy when I was struggling so terribly all these years?_

 _I don't want Allen to die!_

 _Give up trying..? Even as useless and worthless as I am, I always tried again and again despite knowing that I can't do anything right. Even though I said I would stop, I still kept on trying again anyway. Can it really be that easy as not giving up?_

 _Even now, I can't do anything to help Allen and Lenalee! These kind children who tried so hard to help me.._

 _Will be I be able to find something that only I can do?_

 _I'm so stupid.. With my own hands, these hands that can't do anything properly, how can I make it mine?_

Golden light flared up in a circle around the three of them, washing over them in warm and soothing waves unlike the harsh burst before that came with the appearance of the blue-eyed female.

 _What is this..? I feel.. I feel the presence of..?_

"Miss Miranda! The clock!" The lady shouted at her, arm held up to block her hair from whipping painfully into her face as wind blew fiercely around them.

"..Innocence?" _Can it be? Allen was right?_

Both women watched speechless, as a humongous clock face materialized above their heads, constructing a shimmering barrier dome around them. It was a dark barrier dotted with small clock faces as golden as the huge one, each spinning backwards at their own different paces. And then, the large clock's hands ticked backwards.

With each _tick_ , floppy two-dimensional clock faces appeared from Miranda's and Allen's body – more specifically, the time with their wounds – and were sucked into the huge clock face.

The clock was rewinding time.

* * *

Allen bolted upwards with a gasp. Hearing another choked gasp behind him, he whipped around, meeting Miranda's stunned eyes.

"Allen, y-you can move..?" She held a trembling arm out towards him, as though she didn't dare to touch him for fear of making anything worse.

"I can move..?" He echoed confusedly before realizing that he indeed didn't feel any pain at all. In fact, he felt as good as new. Allen peered wide-eyed at his arm, flipping it over and back again, staring as though he'd never seen it before. It was healed perfectly, with no trace of the grievous wounds he had just suffered. No blood, no pain, and his clothes were miraculously repaired as well. Spotting the huge clock face hovering above, he pieced it together. After all, he had seen how the clock had rewound time to turn the next day back into 'today' before.

He smiled warmly at the woman, resting his hand on hers. "I see. You were the accommodator after all, Miranda."

"That's very heartwarming and all, but no time for that."

Allen jumped violently at the foreign voice, caught off guard basking in the soothing atmosphere the dome-encased area exuded. He became immediately alert again. A lady he had never seen before was staring down at him and Miranda, expression hard to read.

"S-she's fine, Allen. She's not going to hurt us." Miranda placed a hand on his, smiling weakly.

"That's right, Allen." She said, almost mocking, though he could tell that there was no malice intended by the teasing glint in her eyes. "Grab the other girl first, we can discuss later."

Allen pursed his lips – who was she to dish out orders like that? – but obliged anyway. What she said was true after all, Lenalee needed to be brought into this 'healing' area first. And she had Miranda's vouch of support. He could question her later. Activating his arm, marveling again for a moment at the extent of the recovery Miranda's Innocence provided, he reached out, vaguely remembering the direction of the chair Lenalee was sat in.

* * *

"She's alive!" Allen cried. His fingers on Lenalee's wrist could clearly feel her pulse thumping happily along.

"Is Lenalee alright? Why won't she move or respond at all?" Miranda anxiously hovered over Allen's shoulder, perplexed at the blank expression on Lenalee's face as she sat in the armchair.

"She's alright, Miranda. There are no external injuries as far as I can see." His lips dipped down slightly. "I think she was attacked by that akuma that can generate soundwaves.. It might have caused some nerve damage."

"T-that's not alright at all, then!"

"She will be. She just has to stay in here for a while."

"Look." The still unknown lady pointed out. "It's already starting."

Silently, the trio – two of them with bated breath – watched as the clock faces they were beginning to get familiar with emerged from Lenalee's body though there was no other visible effect; there were no external injuries after all.

Lenalee blinked, and there was life in her eyes again as though she had come out of a daydream. "Eh?"

"Lenalee!" Allen and Miranda exclaimed, their smiles widening.

"Ack!" Allen yelped as something golden smacked into his face.

"Timcampy!" Lenalee gasped, having forgotten that the golem had been clutched in a death grip for goodness knows how long in her fist. It was probably dying for freedom. She kind of wanted to apologize but the golem was already tightly attached onto Allen's face despite his struggles.

"How fitting to have your Innocence manifest such an ability.. Your desire to help others is truly remarkable." The blue-eyed female mused, a smile playing on her lips as her eyes followed the golem that had ceased flapping its wings in Allen's face and came flying to rest on her head, making her go cross-eyed for a second.

"Eh?"

"Haven't you noticed, Miranda?" Allen cocked his head at her. "You saved mine and Lenalee's lives. The Innocence you activated sucked away the time after we got hurt."

Both exorcists smiled at Miranda as her eyes filled with tears of joy before sincerely chorusing together. " _Thank you, Miranda._ "

* * *

"By the way, who are you? Are you our ally?" Lenalee questioned, wary of this stranger that had suddenly appeared. Was she an exorcist? Though she didn't look particularly hostile towards them, in fact, she was sat cross-legged on the floor with her head seemingly in the clouds, Timcampy still perched atop her hair.

"Hmm," Her eyes flickered to Lenalee, moving from top to bottom as though silently assessing her before flicking away again. She struck a thinking pose, finger on her chin, before looking back at them nonchalantly. "No."

Allen gaped. "What?! But you're helping us now!"

She shrugged in a blasé manner. "I'm not really helping you, or I wasn't intending to. I just barged in here because we have a.." Her gaze turned steely, burning cold with such intense hatred. "Shall we say, a common enemy at the moment."

"The Noah..?" He frowned, narrowing his eyes at her. "How do you know about them? And speaking about barging in, how did you manage to get here? _Did you cut your way in?!_ " His eyes glanced at the huge gash in the walls suspiciously, similar to one he made when he ripped his arm along with the nails from the wall earlier, showing a swirling kaleidoscope of colors behind it instead of the scenery of the town he expected. "How did you know we were here? And where is _here_ , actually?"

She ignored him, her eyes flickering to Miranda, who was still gawking at her. "But I must say," She whistled lowly. "This is one impressive Innocence."

"Wha-you know about Innocence?!" Allen was beyond baffled by this stranger. And he didn't miss that she hadn't really answered who she was either, deflecting all his questions.

"Of course, how else do you think I could have gotten in here? So, Miss Miranda, will you give me yours?" The grin on her face got startlingly wicked. "You see, it's rather marvelous. _I want it_."

Allen and Lenalee jumped in front of Miranda in an instant, in a posture that said they would defend this woman till their last breath.

"Just kidding!" She cackled. "There's only one accommodator for each Innocence, didn't you know? What use would it be to me? You keep it, Miss Miranda."

Allen really wanted this day to be over with. First, they had gotten kidnapped to some other place with a crazy girl. Second, said crazy girl was apparently a 'Noah', whatever that means, and could control akuma. Third, another crazy girl appeared and he was starting to think that she was even more psychotic than the Noah. At least, the Noah was definitely against them, but he couldn't tell whether this newcomer was a friend or foe.

And after knowing that Road – and the Noah family, there were more of than one human on the side of the Earl – was a human, it made his convictions a little unsteady. He thought he knew the two sides so clearly. Humans against the Earl. Humans were good in nature, only being tricked by the Earl. Humans were killed by the Earl. The Earl was evil. The Earl tricked humans into becoming akuma. The Earl created akuma to kill humans. Exorcists kill akuma and protect humans.

What was he supposed to do when a human, the very being he was supposed to protect, was on the enemy's side? When humans were killing each other, who should he..? By killing akuma, he saved their souls with Innocence. What about the Noah? Should he.. kill them..? But they were humans.

His mind was muddled. It was going around in circles.

This new blonde girl didn't help. She was just as confusing. She didn't have an akuma soul either; his eye didn't activate. She was human, but whose side was she on? Did she want to kill humans? Or protect humans?

It was giving him a massive headache. All he knew was that she gave the impression that she was enjoying leading them around by the nose in circles. He already lost count of the number of times she had played them. She was behaving like she had a screw loose in her head.

"You still haven't told us who you are.." Allen glared sullenly.

Lenalee laughed weakly, trying to diffuse what she thought would be another argument like what happened whenever Allen or Kanda laid eyes on the other. It was strange though, that the usually gentlemanly and polite Allen would be this abrasive to someone from the start. She had never seen it before. Even with Kanda, he had first attempted manners and only gave up after being snubbed by Kanda. "It's alright, Allen! It's not really the time now, isn't it?"

"Rowan. You can call me Rowan." They were stunned, all staring at her for a moment, at how she easily gave up this information even though she had been neatly dodging all questions before.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "That's not enough. You'll answer our questions after, right?" It wasn't really a question despite the way he phrased it. He knew it wasn't the time to be having an interrogation session right now anyway. Road needed to be dealt with first, though he didn't know _how_ yet.

"Yes, yes. Alright, alright." Nevertheless, it seemed like she wasn't fazed at all by his attempt to be intimidating. In fact, it was more like she was just being placating or patronizing. He didn't really appreciate it.

"Come on, we've got business to settle outside of here! We can do the boring stuff all we want after this." She thumped her fist into her hand, beaming excitedly all the while. She was nearly bouncing with anticipation, and Allen could've sworn he saw her eyes flash red. Was it a trick of the light..?

* * *

Everything was going according to plan.

The plan was great. Lenalee was kicking up a storm, literally, sending sharp whirlwinds outside of the barrier dome and Allen was brilliantly ambushing the akuma when they were distracted by Lenalee. No problem at all.

Except the fact that Rowan was stuck inside the barrier.

Two questions bounced around in her head while she lounged sideways on the armchair Lenalee previously occupied, legs thrown over one of the arms, looking for all the world like the definition of 'laidback'.

One, why did Allen's plan of attack involve her staying inside the barrier? Rowan thought it was more the fact that they didn't trust her enough to fight with her at their backs than for Miranda's protection as they said.

Two, why was she listening to them and following Allen's 'orders' when she was dying to smash that Road girl's face in?

Rowan's eyes slid to the side, landing on the woman still sat on the floor. Miranda was alternating between wary confused glances at her and worried glances at the two fighting outside. Their eyes met and Miranda squeaked, immediately averting her gaze.

"Miss Miranda," Rowan drawled, eyeing the white knuckles of the woman's fist clenching her dress. "Relax, or your heart is going to thump right out of your chest and nobody wants to have you dead."

"B-but-"

"Seriously. They'll be fine."

"Why aren't you worried?"

"Why should I? They aren't anything to me." Rowan absentmindedly twirled a lock of blonde hair around a finger, ignoring Miranda's gasp of shock. "Besides, the title of 'exorcist' isn't something to be taken lightly."

Something caught her attention out the corner of her eyes. Rowan sat up and jumped off the chair in one fluid motion, startling the other woman.

"Wait, it's quiet. They've stopped fighting. What's going on?"

From whatever she could discern through the barrier, there were five figures standing around; the two exorcists, two akuma, and the Noah. It looked like they were talking but she couldn't make out what. Their expressions though, were pretty self-explanatory. Road had an annoyingly smug smile on her face, and judging from the horrified looks on Allen's face, she had pulled something on them.

"Stop!" Allen shouted, his voice loud enough to carry through the barrier.

And then, Rowan and Miranda watched as he darted forward towards the akuma, only to get tackled out of the way by Lenalee just in time before the akuma exploded.

Rowan was stunned. The akuma exploded, but no one attacked it. So the only reason for its panic before, would be..

She stared hard at the small girl, deducing exactly why. Road, the Noah, the only one with the ability to order akuma around, had told the akuma to self-destruct.

What was the motive, though? The job of the exorcists were to destroy akuma. What was the reason behind ordering an akuma to self-destruct if it was on her side in a battle against two exorcists? She was outnumbered now, even more so if Rowan herself was counted. Surely, she couldn't be so naïve to think that she would be able to beat the three of them by herself. Unless there was something else, something Road had hidden from them, something that gave her the advantage here.

Furthermore, Rowan also didn't understand why Allen would dive towards the akuma if it was self-destructing. He was an exorcist. If the akuma was destroyed in the end, what was the problem? She didn't spot it before, but his left eye had turned black and red. That was another thing to she had to find out about. It was interesting. What power did that black and red eye have?

She just didn't understand.

Her eyes narrowed.

She decided it was imperative that she keep an eye on this Allen. It seems he wasn't wholly the usual run-of-the-mill exorcist.

There were many things that she was not getting here; she was missing more than quite a few pieces of the puzzle.

But not for long. Rowan didn't just _not get_ things. She would, sooner or later, _get it_.

A sharp sound of skin meeting skin snapped her out of her thoughts, her gaze focusing back on the two exorcists.

Allen's head was turned to the side, a patch of red – other than the blood streaming from his cursed pentagram mark and eye – blooming on his cheek. Rowan didn't think that Lenalee was the type of girl to hit someone like that; she had seemed too girly and nice for that. Though she supposed one had to have above the average amount of guts in order to survive as an exorcist.

Snippets of their conversation filtered through the barrier to reach Rowan and Miranda.

"Why did you stop me?!" The first time she had heard him raise his voice in such an angry tone during the days she had observed them. So he really was trying to reach that akuma before it exploded.

"Because we're friends!" Lenalee's retort was equally as angry.

Rowan didn't really care so much about the argument other than the meagre amount of information she had obtained. Then again, it didn't give her anything she hadn't already deduced for herself. Now, she was starting to feel even more miffed than before about being left out of the action.

Road's cackle was the only warning she got before a barrage of attacks was launched at the barrier by the last remaining akuma.

She needed have worried though, she realised a second later. The barrier was perfectly impenetrable, though it appeared to have taken a lot out of Miranda. The woman had suddenly paled and Rowan wondered fleetingly if it was the barrier sapping her energy or just fear at being attacked.

The next moment, the akuma was split in half in a second by a combination of Lenalee's and Allen's attacks.

That only left the Noah.

Despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered, Road wasn't fazed at all. Her smile didn't falter an inch. She danced around Allen, taunting and mocking him as though he wasn't currently aiming his arm cannon at her head ready to fire at any moment.

Her behaviour was a little strange but Rowan knew if it was her in Road's place, held at gunpoint by Allen, she probably wouldn't have budged either. It was glaringly obvious that he would never be able to shoot. Even if they didn't know him, didn't know all his actions ever since he stepped foot in this town, anybody would've known after spending a minute with the boy. Allen was simply too nice, too naïve and too soft. The girl too. If all exorcists were like them, the war would have long been lost.

There is only one truth in war. Anybody that is against you is your enemy and enemies must be taken down, regardless of who they are or where they come from, whether human or akuma.

What a child Allen was, to not know that humans have the ability to be one of the foulest creatures to ever grace this Earth. There is no black and white, no good or bad side, only grey in this world. Being human does not automatically give you the label 'good'.

What simpletons they were, to only watch as their enemy walked away.

That red and black checked door that Road conjured was clearly the exit to this dimension yet the two exorcists didn't make a move.

Rowan was many things, but a fool she was not. Hell would have to freeze over before she let a Noah go without a fight.

"Let's play again sometime, Al-"

"Are you running away, Noah?" Road stopped in her tracks at the accusation, one foot already past the doorway. Her expression became hard as she turned around to meet the eyes of the blonde. Tension sparked in the air as the two females silently studied each other. It might have looked like they were only staring, with their relaxed stances and nonchalant expressions. But war was being waged in their minds, attacking and countering in response to every minute shift in their body language.

Road saw the threat she posed. This lady was no one to underestimate, unlike the young exorcists. This lady was _dangerous_. A different approach would be needed for her.

"The boy's too noble to be any fun." Rowan smirked, taking a threatening step forward, ignoring the protesting splutters of Allen. "Why don't you play with me instead?"

"Play.. with you?" Road's tone had become heavy, sharp and cold, vastly different from the previous light sing-song manner she had spoken in. No one would be able to mistake her for just an ordinary young girl. A menacing aura practically exuded from her. "Who are you to play with me?"

"Wouldn't you like to know." Rowan's eyes flickered red, grin widening in response to her rising bloodlust.

One second, they were both battling to intimidate the other's nerves and in the next, an arrow made of light had thudded frighteningly fast into the door behind Road's head.

Allen and Lenalee both gaped at the speed at which Rowan had attacked. They didn't even see when she had raised her arm, or even when she had created that shining bow of light. The curved longbow, taller than the blonde herself, was such a masterpiece of art that Lenalee couldn't help but feel a jolt of envy, thinking of her Dark Boots. What would it feel like to have such a beautiful weapon? Would she be less burdened, less hateful towards her Innocence if that was the case? Both bow and arrow gently shimmered golden, like warm sunlight on a dank rainy day. It wasn't the appropriate time, but Allen thought that Johnny might have killed to see this. Rowan with her bow held in hand struck such a picture; it was beautiful in a lethal way.

"So, this is what you were hiding." Rowan scoffed, lowering her bow. She didn't sound surprised at the fact that her arrow had shot through Road as though she wasn't even there. So this was her trump card – Road couldn't be harmed in her own dimension. No wonder she was behaving so arrogantly. This rather reminded Rowan of one of her brothers' powers; the power of Negation. She had enough experience sparring with him to know that it was certainly a pain to deal with. Rowan was loath to but supposed she had to let this Noah go.

The longbow disintegrated like a cluster of fireflies going their separate ways and Road took it for the sign it was. She laughed at the irritation in Rowan's eyes, throwing a little mocking wave over her shoulder as she continued into her door. "I'll see you again, Allen, Rowan. Next time, it'll be part of the Earl's scenario."

The door clicked shut and then, there were four staring at the spot where the doorway disappeared.

The ominous nature of Road's parting statement had left Rowan fairly uneasy. Coupled with the displeasure of letting her leave festering inside of her, she really wasn't in a good mood. Glancing Allen's way, it seemed he felt much the same. He had his fist clenched in frustration, eyebrows deeply furrowed. Rowan found herself sympathising with him at the sight of his tortured expression, no matter how much she wanted not to. She remembered how it felt to have the world upended on itself, overturning her beliefs and principles; to have the rug yanked out from under her feet. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, for sure. It also seemed like one couldn't not like Allen; he was just too kind hearted a guy. If she had continued being indifferent towards him, it would be akin to kicking a puppy while it was already down and she wouldn't go that far.

She wondered if she should say something. Neither Lenalee – who had just had a fight with him – nor Miranda were in the state to comfort Allen, both still crouched in the middle of the barrier, looking like they were not done processing what had just happened.

Rowan opened her mouth, and closed it again. She didn't have a clue what to say either. She had long lost hope in the good of the world. What could she say? Welcome to the dark side, where not everything is rainbows and butterflies? She couldn't see that going well.

There was a loud cracking sound and with a sickening lurch, Rowan found herself in a free fall through the air. She didn't even have the time to call out to any of them as the floor under her feet gave way.

* * *

Rowan bolted upright, the uncomfortable feeling of her heart in her throat and gushing adrenaline from the fall causing her heart to thump heavily. She winced. There was a reason she didn't like heights.

 _What..?_

She wasn't falling anymore. She was sitting on the floor, and the view in front of her was Miranda's apartment, the very place she had entered from.

"Allen!" It was Lenalee's voice, fraught with panic and worry, coming from the next room. She hadn't seen them but the others must have 'fallen out' of Road's dimension too. "There's something wrong with Miranda!"

In her haste to where the scream had come from – she wouldn't admit it but the trio was growing on her, especially Miranda, the most defenceless one out of them all – she crashed hard into Allen around the corner. For all scrawny and short he looked, Allen was built solidly than he appeared to be, enough to send her stumbling back a few steps. The air left her in a huff with a grunt at the impact of the collision. Rowan cursed her short frame.

With a muttered apology, he quickly set the blonde upright and towed her along into the room, Timcampy fluttering behind them.

In the room, crumpled on the floor in Lenalee's arms was Miranda, gasping and wheezing heavily like no matter how much she breathed, she couldn't get any air in. Her complexion was dreadfully pallor and haggard. The clock faces of Miranda's Innocence were plastered around the room like wallpaper. It was still activated.

Rowan and Allen shared a knowing look, both coming to the conclusion that it was the result of the activation of her Innocence.

"Miranda," Allen started, going on his knees in front of Miranda. "Stop using your power! If you keep this up, you'll only strain your body beyond its limits!"

"I-I can't." She choked out. "I-If I stop.."

The way the clock faces were drawn towards Allen and Lenalee was explanation enough. The time that was reversed, the time of their wounds, would all come rushing back to them in one blow. The extent of their wounds, Allen's in particular, would be life-threatening.

"Although it was the first time anybody said 'thank you' to me.." Miranda sobbed. "This makes all of it meaningless, doesn't it?!"

Rowan took a slight step back, leaving it to Allen. This wasn't her place to say anything. Nothing she said would have an effect on her. She wasn't the one who had stuck by her this past week, nor did she have wounds that would be returned with the inactivation of Miranda's Innocence.

Allen clapped his hands firmly onto the crying woman's shoulders. Looking her straight in the eyes, he smiled softly and said, "It wasn't meaningless, Miranda." He plopped down onto the floor with a chuckle. "You bought us time and now, we'll deal with the aftermath. I'll bear my own injuries. As long as I'm alive, I can recover! So, stop using the power. Inactivate it, Miranda."

"That's right, Miranda. We'll be fine." Lenalee smiled. "Please stop."

Rowan stood silently and watched as Miranda gave a shuddering sob and a nod of the head.

She watched as Lenalee's eyes slowly grew heavy and closed, falling over on her side. She watched as Allen slumped over against the wall, red blooming gradually in patches on his clothes.

She watched, expression inscrutable, as Miranda ran outside after throwing a glance her way, calling for a doctor as she went.

And she watched, eyes fixed unmovingly on the two still figures on the floor lit by the moonlight – interrupted only by the falling snowflakes, a sign that time had started moving again – shining through the window.

* * *

 _A/N: Done! Finally, the end of the 'Rewinding Town' arc. Say hello to Lavi and one of my favourite characters, Komui, next chapter!_

 _Reviews are much appreciated!_


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: Once again, a big thank you to all my readers for staying with this story!_ :)

 _A special thank you to_ _ **Moonlite 880**_ _for the review, all you reviewers make my day a little happier!_

 _Here's an update with the first Lavi and Rowan interaction. Enjoy!_

* * *

 **-CHAPTER 5-**

* * *

Rowan hauled herself up on top of a table, propping one leg up with her elbow on her knee and the other dangling over the edge.

It wouldn't do to have everybody staring down at her, of course. What was in their water? Why were they all so tall? The red-headed Bookman Junior and the Supervisor towered over her, making her figure look even more petite. Except for Allen and Bookman. Rowan felt a tinge of appreciation – so she wasn't the shortest one – and pity for that poor tiny man. Allen still had chances to grow, by the looks of his face, she guessed he couldn't have finished his growth spurt yet but the senior Bookman was already well past his growing age. In fact, it was more likely that he would continue to shrink as most elderly did.

She cringed, unable to bear the thought of being even shorter than she already was – most girls her age were taller and Lenalee was an inch or two taller despite being younger – and he was more than a head shorter than her.

She was loath to admit it, but the tip of her toes wouldn't even brush the floor from where she was sitting.

Her leg swung back and forth idly, ignoring the curious eyes boring into her over from where Bookman Junior was leaning against the doorway. He was the only unoccupied person in this room, apart from her herself. Bookman Senior was checking over the two wounded exorcists again as he did when they arrived. And the Supervisor of the Black Order – Lenalee's brother, she gathered, seeing as how the man had broken into a huge sobbing fit at Lenalee's feet the moment he burst open the door – had just begun wailing into her bedsheets again.

The Bookman pair and the Supervisor had arrived late last night, one day after the fiasco with Road. In that time, Miranda had ran for the doctor who had carried out emergency treatment for the two exorcists. Both of whom were currently still bedridden and unconscious. Rowan couldn't find it in her to leave the trio that she had admittedly grown a soft spot for, couldn't bring herself to walk out on them even after the Finders waiting outside of town had told them that more Black Order personnel was coming. She had only been planning to stay until they came, so Miranda wouldn't be left alone until a Finder was free to escort her (and the grandfather clock) to headquarters, and that decision somehow evolved into staying until the two woke up, leading to her still being here with the new arrivals.

Somehow, this infiltration mission for information was snowballing into something else entirely. She hoped she would be able to get out while she still could but had the inkling that that was already hopeless.

She swept her eyes over the room, flawlessly playing the part of a bored and unbothered lady. She didn't feel like meeting the red-headed man's gaze at the moment. The look in his eye as he stared at her switched between mooning in a star-truck manner, and calculative; like he was picking apart every single move she made and filing it away for future reference. Both were equally unnerving and creepy.

Rowan's gaze turned disdainful as it landed on the beds Allen and Lenalee were lying on. Horrible thread count, certain to be rough and scratchy, she didn't even have to look closely to tell; it was that obvious. Was there not a better inn in the area? Could the Black Order not afford an inn with a higher quality of amenities provided?

She didn't mind being dirty when necessary – remaining sparkling clean in the throes of battle was highly unlikely after all – but it was unthinkable to have to put up with such accommodations when there was a chance to have a finer quality of things.

Something flesh-colored popped into her vision suddenly and the blonde instinctively lashed out at the offending culprit, jabbing whatever it was with a good hard kick.

"Oomph!" It landed on the floor with a groan, curling up in agony, sounding like it was going to hack up a lung.

 _Oh. It wasn't an it, apparently._

Rowan had just nailed Bookman Junior in the groin. The flesh-colored thing that had filled her vision before was apparently, his hand waving in her face in a bid to get her attention. She had probably been too lost in thought to notice that the Supervisor had stopped wailing to ask her a question.

She gave herself a mental pat on the back, sneering down at him. The hit hadn't been intentional but the pervert deserved it all the same. She'd lost count of how many times he had been caught staring at her with a dreamy look on his face. He'd also yelled 'Strike!' in her face earlier the moment he laid eyes on her when she opened the door for them. She still hadn't decided whether to classify that comment as a compliment or an insult. What was a 'strike' anyway? Some sort of attack?

"My apologies." She could tell the other two men knew it was pretty much a meaningless apology said with not a bit of sincerity. The slight quirk of Komui's lips at the corner was unmissable. The Bookman didn't react visibly, despite his apprentice getting beat up, but it was pointless to assume that something could escape his notice. She wouldn't be surprised if the man had eyes on the back of his head. Rowan wondered if he knew what she was; if her family was inked into the pages of his records.

She stared down at the man still curled up in a ball on the floor, contemplating if he knew too.

"It's fine. I'm fine. No worries." Junior – or _Lavi_ – wheezed out with a weak grin, forming his fingers into a fist with the thumb finger sticking up. "I can still have children."

She had been dubious but perhaps he didn't.

A clearing of the throat brought her attention back to Komui. Really, how did a Supervisor of the main branch just up and leave like that?

"Miss.. Rowan, was it?"

Miranda had introduced her as Rowan, and it was unlikely that he had forgotten it so soon. He was clearly angling for something. Rowan didn't know what, but she could guess he was checking for any lies. She eyed Komui carefully, observing him, not missing the slight tension in both Bookmen's shoulders at the unspoken start of the interrogation either. They were likely eager to get their ears in on any sort of information since they hadn't the chance to glean much about her from overhearing conversations between her and Miranda. They hadn't really spoken much beyond well wishes and hopes to see each other again.

"Yes, you may call me Rowan, Supervisor." Her face was carefully blank, without the slightest hint of a smile. It was time to be careful, as much as she could be while still playing them. She didn't want to have something important slip out and give away her true identity while focusing on her game.

It was only a human name with no relevance to what she was. She had no intention of being hostile anyway in case he decided it was necessary to chase her down. That would be a complete nuisance.

"Komui is fine. No need for formalities." Though, he looked like he didn't completely believe her. "..Is that your real name?"

His only response was an enigmatic smile. It was her real name but she'd managed to play into his suspicions with the phrasing of her words. Maybe he believed that she had given Miranda a fake name as well?

"Right. So, Miss Rowan," The Supervisor looked like he'd just take it as it is and moved on. His glasses glinted eerily like a mad scientist. "Who are you?"

"Could've sworn I just told you that, Mr. Komui."

"Right then," He coughed awkwardly into his fist, knowing that this was only the start of a very difficult interrogation. He didn't think he'd be getting many straight answers out of her. " _What are you_?"

"That's rude." Her lips pursed together, displeased. What did they think she was, a thing? Certainly, she wasn't being cooperative, but she hadn't insulted them either. "I'm human."

Komui frowned. Lavi was staring unabashedly at them now, having recovered and straightened up, eye carefully capturing the back and forth exchange.

"Are you an exorcist? Do you have Innocence?"

"I'm not an exorcist."

The Supervisor perked up visibly at the first straight answer she'd given him. "But you have Innocence?" He was almost eager in his digging now, firing out another question before she had even barely finished her sentence.

"What do you think?" Rowan laughed, wondering if he was starting to get annoyed now.

 _Sorry to burst your bubble, Supervisor, but there's no free lunch in this world._

She knew Lavi was. The slight narrowing of his eye was spotted out of the corner of her eyes. It was probably one of the few things that could truly irk a Bookman; withholding information that he was utterly dying to know and had no other way to get it than through her herself. Watching both him and the Supervisor struggle to hide their inner frustration was hilarious like nothing other, though Junior hid his better.

Maybe she could stick around for longer, just to see how they planned to wrangle what information they could out of her and then, thwart it. Her sadistic tendencies were coming out to play. But then again, it would be inconvenient if they managed to find out what was in her blood. She was supposed to keep a low profile. But toying with them was fun. She wanted more.

In contrast, Bookman didn't even look like he was paying attention, eyes unerringly fixed on his patients, but he probably was.

"Then, what are you? I don't believe you're just a normal human. It's impossible for someone without Innocence to fight against the Noah and akuma like you did."

"You're smarter than you look, Supervisor. You're right, I'm not." She gave him a challenging smile, as though daring him to make her talk. "But what makes you think I have any obligation to answer your questions?"

"You helped Lenalee and Allen, and Miranda. And you haven't left yet. Are you not on our side?"

Rowan remembered back in Road's dimension when Lenalee had asked if she was their ally. These pair of siblings even asked the same questions. "The brats-"

"Brats?" Lavi echoed incredulously. "You don't look any older than them!"

Her hands involuntarily tightened on the edge of the tabletop for a moment. He had better not be making any references about her size or she'd throttle them, starting with that orange scarf on that red-headed man's neck.

"-have quite unexpectedly grown on me but as I've told them, no. I'm not on the side of the Black Order."

Komui inhaled sharply. "You know of the Black Order."

"Yes, of course," She replied imperiously, staring down her nose at him until he felt like he was a peasant standing in front of royalty. It really wasn't often a person of his position could be made to feel inferior. "Only a fool wouldn't have heard of the Black Order."

"So, you are involved in this war against the Earl."

"Did I say I wasn't?" She peered at her fingernails blandly, wondering if that spot there was a chip in her nail.

"Whose side are you on, then?"

"My side."

Komui heaved a sigh painfully full of frustration, eye twitching at how Rowan looked pleased with herself. The cat that got the cream, indeed.

* * *

"Take a picture. It'll last longer." Rowan remarked dryly. She wanted to roll her eyes, but it wasn't proper. Lavi's gaze hadn't left her ever since they had stepped out of the inn and it was starting to become annoying. The interrogation before had drained her of all will to participate in more battles of wits.

The senior Bookman had claimed that they were a hindrance and a waste of space – _was a mentor meant to be that rude to his apprentice?_ – and anyone not useful and not bedridden had been promptly kicked out the room. Honestly, the only one that was truly a nuisance was the Supervisor; he had been getting in Bookman's way, noisily crying buckets at Lenalee's bedside, sounding much like a strangled frog trying to sing opera. She had only been sitting quietly in a corner by herself but that was enough to get herself classified as 'not useful' along with Lavi. Komui allegedly had skills in repairing Innocence so he was useful enough to stay.

' _Go and make yourself useful. Buy lunch_.' He said. To Bookman, was getting an apprentice equal to buying a pack mule for running errands?

"Is it a crime to stare at a pretty lady?"

"Is it a crime to hit a pervert?" She was smug to see that he shuffled away from her a little bit, afraid to get hit again.

"So, what for lunch?" He gestured to the stalls lining the road they were walking down. "And how old are you anyway?"

"I eat almost every cuisine." She shrugged. "And haven't you learnt yet, Junior?"

Her age wasn't a secret. It didn't matter whether he knew it or not but it was almost reflex by now, playing with words and dodging around whenever people asked her things. Rowan just didn't give away things easily.

"Alright, you're not telling me. I get it." He wagged his finger in her face obnoxiously. She had half a mind to snap her teeth at it and see how he'd react. He might call her a cannibal. "And call me Lavi. Pork chop?"

"Sure. I want baked potatoes, sausages and carrots too. You're paying."

"What? You're eating too much and why am I-"

"You're the one with a job, Mr. Exorcist. You. Pay."

Rowan smirked as Lavi dutifully ordered, paid and carried the bags. She did have money, enough to buy for all of them, but it was fun to tease the man. Being able to see him grumble and pout was another bonus.

"Let's have a wager instead. If I guess correctly within three tries, you'll have to answer the next question truthfully." Lavi continued the conversation from before they got sidetracked.

"No. If that's the case, then you get two truths. That's not to my advantage, isn't it? Choose something else."

"How about you give me a kiss?" He playfully puckered up his lips in her direction. "Right over here."

The look she gave him was utterly scathing, like he was the scummiest scum on Earth, but his rakish grin didn't droop a bit.

"I'll take the second question. I won't lie." She reluctantly conceded. "And what do I get if I win? A warning, I'm not going to settle for any small prize."

"A question? I'll return a truth for a truth."

She eyed him for a second before scoffing. "I said, I'm not taking any small prizes. If you're giving me truths, I'm not going to ask mundane questions like your age. That's not worth it." Her lips curled up in a positively wicked smirk. "Can you afford to divulge Bookman secrets?"

He blanched. "Alright, forget that. Here's my best offer, take it or leave it."

She threw him an amused lift of the eyebrow. Why was he talking like she was the one that wanted this wager in the first place?

"A favour. I'll give you one, _one_ , unconditional favour." She batted his finger out of her face again with a huff. If he did that one more time, she'd really try to take a bite out of it. "Within reason. No expiry date. Deal?"

An unconditional favour. She didn't like giving away things but coming from someone of his position, it was undoubtedly worth more than a few measly truths. But she didn't know how many questions he would ask, and one favour for all of it was a very unbalanced exchange. Also, just having _one_ went against her very being. She had every intention to milk this for as long as possible. "No deal."

"What?!" He squawked. Lavi was absolutely stunned at how much this blonde was trying to wring out of him.

"You'll owe me one, for each question you fail to guess correctly within three tries. You'll have to do whatever I ask of you. My requests will be within reason, of course."

Lavi had a sinking notion that he had just been swindled, but he couldn't resist the lure of information dangling an inch away from his reach. "Fine."

"Your first guess?"

"You're short." Rowan's eye twitched. What did her age have to do with her height? That was a topic she wanted off limits at all costs but if she blew her gasket then he'd know that it was a sore spot, and that wouldn't do. "So, twelve?"

"Wrong." She nearly growled, certain that he was pushing her buttons like she was pushing his. There was no way she looked like a pubescent child.

"Really? How about fourteen? No, seventeen. Seventeen!" At her grudging nod, Lavi pumped his fist in the air excitedly. "Aha! I'm older – eighteen!"

"And that matters to me, why?"

"Haven't you ever heard of 'listen to your elders'?"

"There's not a thing in me that demands me to worship someone just because they've lived a year longer. Nice try." There was only one person Rowan would follow unconditionally, no questions asked, and it wasn't because of his age. He was the reason for her and her family's existence.

"Huh, you're really short. Lenalee's younger but taller than you."

"I'm well aware, thank you very much." Her tone was flat, perfectly unruffled, and he would have believed it if his sharp eyes hadn't caught the shifting of her jaw as she gritted her teeth. Lavi was absolutely gleeful to have found that out. Could he say he won this round?

"As per our agreement, here's my next question. No lying."

"I said I won't." Rowan grouched. His smirk practically spelled out that she wouldn't like whatever was going to come out of his mouth next.

"Exactly how tall – no, wait – how _short_ are you?"

* * *

Rowan wondered if Komui truly knew what he was doing.

Lavi was acting like this was nothing out of the ordinary, obediently guarding the door as Komui ordered.

In what world could a drill that size be used, especially on the human body for parasitic Innocence like the one Allen had? The drill was nearly half the size of the Supervisor himself.

Rowan decided that she didn't want any part of this madness, slipping past Lavi out into the corridor. She could just imagine the pitiful eyes Allen would direct to her, saying ' _Why did you let him do that to me?_ '. Or was she already at fault for pretending like she saw nothing and escaping?

She cringed at the sound of the drill starting up filtering through the door.

No, nevermind. She saw nothing and knew nothing. She'd become an ostrich burying its head in the sand for the moment.

She just hoped Allen didn't wake up. Or at least, until it was all over.

Finally, the loud roar of the drill died down and Rowan was considering going back in when there was a loud shout of surprise.

She recognized that voice. Allen was awake!

Wanting to enter the room and see how he was doing, she made towards the doorway only to get pushed back.

"What do you think you're doing?" Rowan hissed.

The guardian of the doorway only grinned, lifting his finger to his lips in the 'shush' gesture. Lavi's hands were firm on her shoulders and she found that she couldn't even take one step whether forward or backward, held stuck in that one spot by his grip.

Infuriated, and since the upper half of her body was made stationary, she took the opportunity to stomp on his foot. It was fortunate that there were no onlookers as the ensuing hushed scuffle that took place was akin to that of toddlers fighting complete with childish tactics. In the midst of grappling with her, he realized that her height was just in the perfect range for a headlock seeing as how the top of her head only came up to somewhere a little below his nose. With a well-placed elbow that caught her off guard, a grunt escaping her, Lavi managed to grab Rowan around the neck with an arm. Pressing her back into his chest firmly to stop her from struggling, he covered her mouth with the other hand. He let out a yelp when her hand reached up to yank harshly on his hair in retaliation.

It was in this position that the two were frozen in, arms tangled within the other's and hair tousled, when Komui and Allen turned to the doorway after hearing the muffled sounds of their tussle.

"Rowan!" She couldn't fathom why Allen actually looked happy to see her but it somehow made her feel all bubbly and warm inside. "You're still here!"

She kicked Lavi in the shin hard enough for him to immediately release her in favor of cradling his leg in pain and bounced the few steps to Allen's bedside.

"Allen, glad to see you're up." A genuine smile rose unbidden onto her face, in response to his. Rowan had truly been worried for both him and Lenalee the past few days. She ignored the squeal of 'Strike!' from behind her and the slight flush creeping up on Allen's cheeks. "How are you feeling?"

"Better, but Lenalee.."

"She'll be fine. Gramps is taking care of her as we speak. She'll be back to normal in no time." Lavi drawled, returning to his facade of being confident and laidback. "I'm Lavi, nice to meet you."

Allen hesitantly returned the greeting, still unsure of what to think of him. Seeing Lavi and Rowan tangled up together in that position earlier made him even more confused. From what he had seen of the blonde so far, he knew her to be prim and proper despite her occasional penchant for being psychotic. In order to make Rowan so messy, who was this man..?

"Ah, right, I have something from Miss Miranda for you." Komui said, beaming. He handed over a letter to Allen. "She's agreed to becoming an exorcist. Isn't that great? We have a new member in our family!"

Apart from Lavi, no one else caught the falter in her smile at Komui's words.

* * *

They were all gathered in Lenalee's room, the girl herself still unconscious in bed.

However, the room was looking like more of a storage room than a patient's room, what with all the gravity-defying stacks of paperwork around the room. The poor girl's bed was nearly hidden from sight.

Allen and Rowan were on the couch, facing Komui who was sat on the other side of Lenalee's bed and the Bookmen pair was somewhere in this maze of paper as well.

The mood was tense and heavy, due to the topic Allen had brought up.

 _Who or what, are the Noah family?_

He had known that the Supervisor himself couldn't have left headquarters just because of him and Lenalee, no matter how much of a sister complex the man had. His gut instinct said that this Noah family was an important player in the war against the Earl. He also hadn't forgotten that Rowan had referred to them as a common enemy, shooting her pointed looks. The blonde definitely knew more than she was letting on but was stubbornly keeping her mouth shut.

Lavi had rambled on for a while, saying nothing that wasn't already learnt from Allen's encounter with Road. Rumored sightings of a groundless family appearing by the side of an unnamed Earl was all he managed to say before getting hit in the face with a magnificent flying kick courtesy of Bookman senior himself.

Rowan quietly observed the spectacle the Bookmen pair made. It didn't escape her notice that it seemed.. _staged_. As though this light-hearted spat was a debacle meant to distract them from whatever they wanted to keep hidden. Just like how the grin on Lavi's face sometimes reminded her of porcelain. These were the kind of people she would never be able to understand. It was human nature to want, perhaps her more so than others, but these people didn't embrace their desires and kept them under lock and key instead. She, who was always true to her desires, couldn't imagine how they voluntarily put themselves on the sideline to only observe and not participate.

Rowan never did anything she didn't want, and she did everything she wanted.

Humans, should be like humans, and accept that humans have needs and wants. That was fundamental human nature. It was not a crime to want.

Looking at them left a disgusting aftertaste on her tongue.

Bookman's gaze landed on her, and they shared an equally cold stare before he shifted to Allen. It appeared that both were not receptive of the other.

"Allen Walker. Nothing can be done until Miss Lenalee awakens. Take it easy and rest for now."

The way Allen's fist clenched spoke volumes about his character. This was someone who couldn't stand not doing something, someone who always wanted to walk forward, and not stop. A fatal flaw, perhaps, Rowan mused. The kid seemed to not value himself as much as he valued others.

But that was something she could identify with. He wanted to save everyone, whether human or akuma, whether within or beyond his reach. Such an overwhelmingly kind, and greedy person Allen was.

Before she knew it, the three teenagers had been kicked out of the room again.

She levelled Lavi with a dry look. "Are you sure you're his apprentice? He seems to not like you very much."

"I don't think the old panda likes anyone much." Lavi shrugged. "So how old are you?" He asked Allen as he led the way outside the building to the snow-covered yard.

"Fifteen, I think."

"Oh! You're the youngest, then! I'm eighteen, she's seventeen."

"Yes, I'm older than you." Rowan bit out, bristling at the dubious look Allen gave her. "Stop staring. Or I'll gouge out your eyeballs."

"Lay off him, pipsqueak." Lavi steered her away from Allen to sit on the ground, shoving a snowball in her hands. "Here, build a snowman. Not pipsqueak? How about baby doll, then? Short and cute." He grinned, winking at her.

The snowball was at once shoved into his face with force, causing him to fall back on his butt. Allen watched them amusedly as Lavi threw a bunch of snow at her, starting a mini snowball fight.

Lavi finally surrendered after she dumped the cold snow down the back of his shirt, sending him into a flailing fit trying to get it out. He heaved, turning his attention back to Allen. "Hey, I wanted to ask you.. Can I call you beansprout?"

"Beansprout? That's not at all disparaging, is it?" Rowan grumbled. "And why are you only asking for his permission?"

"Eh?!" Allen squeaked, his horrified expression bringing a chuckle out of Rowan.

"I can't? But Yuu calls you that."

"Yuu? Who's..?"

"Kanda! Yuu is his given name. He's Kanda Yuu."

"Another exorcist?" Rowan asked, feeling a little lost in the conversation.

"Yeah, he's grumpy but he's really pretty for a guy." Lavi snickered. "Next time, try calling him that. I bet his eyes will bulge right out."

"That sounds interesting." Rowan smirked.

"Now that I think of it, he's like you when people call you short. But it'll probably be a while before we get to see him again."

Spotting Allen's confused look, he explained further. "Seems to me that the next mission will be a long dragged out fight. The Earl is making a move. That's likely what the Noah's appearance means."

Lavi glanced at Rowan's steely expression at the mention of the Earl and the Noah. It went unspoken that whatever Rowan was, her appearance had a part in whatever was starting now. He knew that she was connected to the Noah.

"Allen. Sometimes, good people have to do bad things, but that doesn't make them bad people." Rowan said gently, yet firmly. It was at times like this, even back with Road, that Rowan saw just how innocent Allen still was, despite the horrors he had already gone through. He still had a pure heart, unlike her. Perhaps, she never even really had a pure heart. Admittedly, she herself knew that her moral compass was skewed according to her own tune.

"I became an exorcist to destroy akuma, not to kill human beings!" His voice was rough, the conflict of his morals warring within him.

"You don't have to kill them."

"What?" Allen breathed out, looking like he didn't dare to hope that that was possible.

"You don't have to lift a finger towards humans." Her tone of voice was startling and both Lavi and Allen stared at the sudden icy look in her eyes. "I'll be the one to kill them."

He wondered how she could speak of killing humans so easily as though she was merely referring to the weather.

"No." He growled, abruptly wheeling around and walking away. It didn't matter who killed them. He just didn't want any humans to be killed, Noah or not.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Lavi called after him, shouting when there was no response. "Hey, beansprout!"

" _It's Allen!_ " He snarled, before continuing on his way. "I'm going for a walk. Just go back without me."

"Yeah. What a brat."

"You're very tactful." Her face practically said that she thought he was damaged in the head.

* * *

Allen wandered aimlessly down the street through the crowd.

The coat of his exorcist coat was up, hiding his eye-catching white hair and red curse mark.

It was only a crowd of townspeople, normal people going through their everyday life. So why was he so tense?

Why couldn't he relax? Why did he feel so anxious?

All of the faces he went past suddenly felt like they were all staring at him, like they were all holding a knife to his back.

Why was he so afraid?

They were all human. Or were they? His eye wasn't working now, he realized with growing panic. He could potentially be in a crowd full of akuma.

Human? Or not?

"Hello, Mr. Exorcist."

He froze at the sound of a gun cocking behind his head.

* * *

 _A/N: Leave a review if you please :)_


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N: As always, thank you to all my readers, new and old, for the views, favourites/follows and reviews! Sorry it took so long!_

* * *

 **-CHAPTER 6-**

* * *

"You coming?" Lavi asked he stood up, brushing snow off his pants, intending to find Allen.

"No, I'll stay." She reluctantly answered. "There're two non-combatants here."

Rowan would have insisted on going to find Allen since he was practically a sitting duck right now. She didn't know whether Allen knew how to be on guard without his cursed eye as his akuma detector. However, their fighting forces would be imbalanced if she went with Lavi. Besides, Allen should be fine with only the older man as reinforcements. From observing his movements, she knew that he was experienced in combat.

"Alright." He shrugged casually but it was obvious that he had worked out her reasoning. Lavi's eye was serious and sharp. That was not a man that could be caught by surprise.

The redhead trudged off towards town, following in Allen's footsteps, and Rowan resigned herself to having Bookman as company again, but she would first take the opportunity to be alone outside for a while longer.

"Excuse me?" A small girl tottered on unsteady legs past the gate. "Please, I need some help.."

The girl looked fairly innocent but Rowan's instincts didn't let her relax. Something was wrong.

The malevolent spike in bloodlust was the only warning she got. In a reflexive movement, Rowan dived forward in a roll, narrowly avoiding the numerous bullets aimed at where her head had been a split second ago. The little girl's body had morphed hideously, the gun now protruding from her belly smoking lightly and soon enough, a horde of Level Ones were floating in front of Rowan, the barrels of their guns shifting with a creak to aim at her.

There was no shelter to hide behind in the open backyard but at least, there was plenty of space for manoeuvres. She quickly threw up a barrier of light to block the incoming round of bullets and used the chance to attack. With each deft flick of her wrist, the daggers of light she continuously materialized were flung at the akuma shooting at her. The daggers landed in their targets with polished accuracy and the akuma instantly exploded one after another, sending rubble and her hair flying.

Rowan was standing alone in the courtyard in less than a minute. She inwardly scoffed. Such a number of Level Ones was far from what was needed to bring her down. This was only light exercise.

Now, the only problem left was upstairs, in Lenalee's room where the other Black Order members were gathered. She wasn't certain if any akuma had snuck in while she was distracted demolishing the Level Ones outside.

Stepping into the hallway, Rowan tensed. The bloodstains on the wall on both sides of the door and the dark ashes within crumpled cloaks were clear signs that the akuma had come. The unfortunate Finders had probably died before they could even utter a word. Rowan readied herself for a fight as she crept closer to the open door, hearing sounds of crashing from within. There were no human cries of pain so she safely assumed that Lenalee and Komui were unharmed and that Bookman was having no trouble with the akuma.

Peering into the room, she was met with a rather strange sight. Bookman had sent the Level Two akuma in question flying into the wall with a kick, landing in an upside-down position, mangled and twisted with many black needles – Bookman's Innocence, perhaps? – puncturing it.

She decided that despite being one known for knowledge, Bookman was indeed not to be underestimated in battle, contrary to his stout appearance.

Spotting Komui cradling Lenalee to his chest in the corner, Rowan picked her way across the debris towards them. Bookman spared her a single glance before starting his interrogation of the Level Two. "Confess. Why have you come here?"

Rowan thought the answer was pretty obvious as the akuma giggled creepily. All akuma were either under the orders of the Earl or the Noah. "I have a message from the Earl. ' _Time is up! The Thousand-year prologue is over. Now the drama will unfold. When you hear the bell for the curtain call, don't run! You exorcists are our performers!_ '"

"An easy kill!" It shrieked.

Bookman couldn't react in time. He had been too focused on what the akuma was saying and whatever projectile it was that had launched itself from the dying akuma's arm was insanely fast. It sped past him in a blur, going straight for the trio behind him.

It was barely a few inches away from Komui when it burst in an explosion, his face burning from the blast of hot air blowing out.

"Le-lenalee.." He stuttered out his sister's name in shock. Her leg was extended out in the air, Innocence activated. Rowan gaped at her too. She hadn't even seen the girl _move_ from Komui's arms.

"You're awake." Bookman let out the tiniest sigh of relief. After all, it wouldn't do to have the Supervisor of the Black Order or his sister die on his watch.

Lenalee smiled at them all, her smile widening at the sight of Rowan. "Rowan, you're-"

"Wait!" Rowan held up a hand, brows furrowed. "Do you hear that?"

No sooner had Rowan finished her sentence than all of them heard it. A split second later, Allen and Lavi crashed through the roof, roughly tumbling onto and skidding across the floor, only stopping by smacking into the wall.

"..I see you came here by hammer, Lavi." Komui said weakly, staring at their crumpled bodies.

Lavi laughed, jumping up and looking none the worse for wear, a hand rubbing the back of his head in sheepish embarrassment. "It's really convenient but hard to stop!"

"Bookman disappeared." Rowan remarked, already having an inkling as to the old man's whereabouts. She didn't feel good about what was coming.

Sure enough, Bookman popped out of the cloud of dust from their entrance with a face like Death, Allen slung limply over his head. Unluckily, for the duo or for Bookman, Rowan couldn't decide, the old man had gotten squashed by the two teenagers in their landing.

"You damn brats!"

* * *

"A few days ago," Komui started somberly. "A general was murdered."

A hush seemed to come over all the occupants of the carriage currently heading to the train station. Komui continued to explain how the General Kevin Yeegar's body had been found nailed backwards to a cross, with the words 'God Hunt' carved onto his back. The Innocence he was carrying with him, nine in total including his own, were stolen and most probably destroyed. His mind had been broken too; General Yeegar was like a broken record, unable to stop singing all the way to when he took his last breath. The song's lyrics were ominous, saying that the Earl was looking for the Heart Innocence.

"The Heart? What's that?"

"It is the root of all exorcists' power." Rowan answered, staring blankly out the window at the passing scenery. "The one thing that can decide the outcome of the war instantly. If the Heart is destroyed, you will have lost the war."

"How do you know everything?" Allen demanded, surprised yet not surprised that she knew all these things despite not being an exorcist.

"You know too little." She sighed disappointedly, causing Lavi to snort.

Allen glared, but left it alone. "So, where is it? How do we find it?"

"Well, that's the thing. We really do know nothing." Komui shrugged carelessly. "It's really annoying. There're no clues at all, whatsoever, no matter where we look about its whereabouts or its characteristics." He devolved into a full out rant about the stinginess of the ancient texts and more.

"It's probably better, that there are no details. If the Noah managed to steal those texts of yours, it would be catastrophic for you."

"Yes, but it still leaves us at a standstill." Komui exhaled sharply, becoming serious once again. "General Yeegar is only the first the victim. I assume the Earl is targeting those with high power as likely bearers of the Heart. That could explain the increasing numbers of akuma and the appearance of the Noah as well."

He glanced at Rowan. _And your appearance too. Human, but neither an exorcist nor a Noah. You are a mystery._

"The mission this time, is to find and protect the generals. Even for them, a simultaneous attack by akuma and the Noah would be too much. Exorcists all over the world are being recalled and split into four groups."

"Surely you don't mean.." Allen grimaced.

"You lot are assigned to General Cross."

"Why.. Why me." Allen blanched shockingly white, moaning. It almost looked like his soul was leaving his body. "I never thought I'd have to meet him again.."

"Allen!" Lavi cried. "Don't die!"

"Because, of course, he's your Master! That man never checks in with us, for all we know, he could be dead, but then you came! His apprentice!" Komui's glasses sparkled evilly. "With you and Timcampy, we can track him down!"

Allen's only response was another groan.

"Cross.. Is he perhaps red-haired?"

"You know General Cross?" Komui's head whipped in her direction eagerly.

"I've met him, yes." Rowan crossed her arms, looking extremely sour at the memory. She remembered meeting an exorcist with golden details on his coat before but his personality was both a kindred spirit and irksome at the same time. Looking at Allen's horrified reaction to being sent after him, she put together the dots. "He did mention having an apprentice and I gave him a black eye for trying to fondle me."

Allen seemed to crumple in on himself further at that statement. "..My apologies."

"Well, this won't start for a while yet. We've yet to make the necessary arrangements and I'd like for you to rest for a while longer, Allen, since you were injured so badly." Komui gave him a sympathetic smile before turning back to Rowan. "Miss Rowan, you said you're coming with us to headquarters?"

"Yes, I suppose so." Rowan intended to just take a look, find out what sort of information they had, do some reconnaissance.

"I would like for you to assist them in this mission."

"No, you want me babysat." She scoffed at the ridiculous notion he tried to hide. To willingly travel with a Bookman pair that would be waiting for the moment she slipped and gave up her secrets? And to think Komui thought that he could order her around? How absurd. She'd only do what she wanted to when she wanted to. She was no one's subordinate. "I've been playing along until now but you do realize I'm not one of you."

"It's a request, Miss Rowan. We have a common enemy, as you said, and I wish to have you as an ally." Komui said firmly, unshaken by the dangerous flash of her eyes.

She narrowed her eyes, looking to be deep in thought. Her eyes flickered over all the people in the room, landing on each of them for a moment as though assessing their worth. They eyed her back warily, waiting for her response.

"Very well. I will cooperate for now." Rowan confirmed, although she didn't look particularly happy about it.

"Thank you." Komui heaved a nearly imperceptible sigh of relief. The blonde was valuable, and dangerous, whether in combat skill or in knowledge. It would be a large disadvantage for the Black Order if they had gone their separate ways. Exorcists were already few in number and any help was always needed.

* * *

After many shenanigans during the train ride, including an argument and reconciliation between Allen and Lenalee, and Lavi drawing on Allen's face, the group finally arrived at the Black Order HQ.

Rowan directed a distasteful eye at the towering castle. Gloomy, rainy, and dreary. Why, it was almost like the town they found Miranda in. "This is where you live?"

"Yes, this is _home_." Lenalee smiled at her, leading the way to the huge doors set in the wall. The others had long gone inside via another way, leaving the newcomer to Lenalee, as always. "Sorry about this, but it's procedure for non-exorcists. Gatekeeper!"

A large face bulged out from the wall the moment Lenalee called for it, eyes nearly popping out of its sockets as it's voice boomed. "Newcomer!"

In a rare moment of discomposure, Rowan involuntarily let out a squeak and flinched, caught off-guard by its appearance and sudden proximity to her. "Eep!"

"Cross-examination!" Bright beams shone out from its eyes and landed on her, scanning whether she was akuma or human. "Human! Open the doors!"

"You have a rather unsightly gatekeeper, Lenalee." Rowan smiled serenely at her as the doors shut behind them. "I never want to see it again."

"Eh?" Lenalee froze at the contrasting words and emotion. There was clearly something black emanating from Rowan. She wisely chose to ignore it and continue the tour.

"You don't have Innocence, so I guess you don't have to see Hevlaska.." Lenalee trailed off as they passed the central floating lift.

"Hevlaska?"

"Oh, she's the keeper of all the unsynchronized Innocence here, and she can sense the extent of our synchronization!"

Rowan hummed in interest, content to let Lenalee chatter on about the rest of the staff as they walked on. There probably wouldn't be any synchronization rate for Hevlaska to analyze about Rowan. Innocence practically ran in her very blood and veins. She was, and yet wasn't Innocence. It would be fun to see her reaction at that realization. She made a mental note to visit Hevlaska at least once, alone, before she left.

After going through the cafeteria, the science department, the training rooms and many other places, Lenalee showed Rowan to her personal room. It was actually just beside hers. At least, there would be less chance of getting lost. Every darned hallway was starting to look the same here.

Over the course of the next few days, Rowan explored and wandered the headquarters. She went to the library – the very impressive library, she could admit that – and lost herself in their tomes for hours, even forgetting to eat at times until Lavi or Lenalee came to find her. The size of the library was perfect for her, it was so big she couldn't see the ends of it. She was going to read it all. The cafeteria was equally as amazing, thought it was mostly the cook, Jerry.

Jerry was one of her favourites here. The man cooked absolutely delicious food – she'd have to invite her brother here one day; he might be able to eat Jerry out of house and home. Rowan wasn't a small eater either, partly because of her abilities, though she paled in comparison to Allen. She almost couldn't believe her eyes when the boy pushed a trolley laden with a mountain of food to their table. She'd never thought that someone could compete with her brother in the amount of food they could eat.

Johnny, the bespectacled scientist/researcher, was another one she liked. The man was so innocently kind and warm, that it was impossible to not like him. He had tried to make an exorcist coat for her, but she had firmly declined his offer. Apparently, he had made one anyway in case she changed her mind later. It was for protection, he said, regardless of whether she was an exorcist or not, she was an ally and he wanted to protect her too.

She sparred with Allen and Lavi – though strictly speaking, Allen was supposed to be resting – thrashed them and she also met the 'Yuu' guy that Lavi had talked about before. Their first meeting didn't go very well, though she learnt it was the same for everyone except possibly Lenalee.

"Who are you? Why are you here?" The pretty dark-haired man demanded the moment she popped her head out from behind Lavi and Allen. They were going for their usual sparring session and Kanda Yuu was already inside the training room.

"Ah, my babysitter is here, so I followed!" She pointed at Lavi while smiling brightly, undaunted by his menacing glare. If what Lavi said was true, this would be extremely fun. She could already see he didn't buy her innocent and harmless act, not one bit. She had no ill intention towards any of them, but it wouldn't hurt to make it seem like she did just to push his buttons.

"Babysitter? Oi, rabbit, just who is she?" He yanked on Lavi's scarf, pulling him back to growl in his face.

"Hmm, an enemy? Someone who thinks you're pretty?"

"Stop it, Rowan!" Lavi yelped as the scarf tightened around his neck. "Yuu, just calm down first..? Allen, help!"

Unfortunately for him, the youngest only made Kanda's mood worsen. "Oi, Bakanda! Stop being so dumb-"

"What did you say, beansprout?!"

"Stop it, you guys!" Lavi choked out. "Dying here! Seriously, I'm dying!"

Kanda clicked his tongue, shoving away the redhead and turning towards the sole female in the room. "Oi, you. I'm going to rearrange that mouth of yours."

Without even a fair sign to signal the start of the match, he jumped towards her with his wooden sword with no hesitation at all. Rowan couldn't help but grin. He was fast, exceedingly so, but she was faster. After all, her element was unmatched in speed. She dodged him easily, whirling around to kick him in the butt as he charged past her. His resulting furious expression brought a cackle out of her. By now, both Allen and Lavi were forgotten and the two launched into a series of high-difficulty moves, striking out at each other with increasing speed.

The grin on her face turned from a mocking one meant to irritate into a truly exhilarated one. Rowan was enjoying the thrill of this fight. It had been so long since she had fought someone with such high skills. Kanda's expression too, had morphed from infuriated to a concentrated one. Instead of the brawl it had started out as, it was now a calculated fight, both fighters measuring their ability against each other. Ultimately, they had ended up in a draw – he had knocked her feet out from under her with a low roundhouse kick and she had twisted to land a foot in his gut – both laying exhausted on the ground, full of bruises and scrapes.

"Lavi! I won!" She weakly cheered in between gasps, trying and failing to catch her breath.

"Like hell you did!" Kanda snarled back. "It was a draw, you shitty woman! You shrimp!"

In a flash, she had jumped on the Japanese, wrestling him into a chokehold. That was one sore spot to never poke. "You pretty boy! If you want another fight, just say so! I'm happy to thrash you again and again!"

"I give up.." Lavi moaned, head in his hands. "They're never going to stop fighting now."

In the end, somehow, Rowan and Kanda started seeking the other out for sparring and the training room always emptied astonishingly fast whenever they were there.

* * *

Finally, the day came.

Rowan found herself standing at the train station of a small town with Lavi in Romania. It was the first mission for the Black Order that she was participating in. They were here as reinforcements for Allen, who had been sent ahead of them first. The rest of Team Cross, Lenalee and Bookman, were investigating another lead elsewhere. There was no one other than them at the station. No one else had alighted nor boarded at this stop. The town was quite isolated, having a thick forest at their border with no connection to the rest of the world other than the train.

"Allen's not here.." Rowan frowned. The boy was meant to be waiting for them at the station but there was no sign of him.

"Maybe he got hungry and went off to buy a snack?" Lavi mused, not seeming bothered.

"That's the problem." She strode down the platform to the village. It was dead silent. Not even one person was out on the streets and all the windows of the houses were boarded up as well. "No one's here."

"Hey! Over there." Lavi pointed out a light flickering in one of the houses. Exchanging a silent nod, they both stealthily crept over, peering through the windows.

"It's Allen!" She hissed, only to find out that Lavi had disappeared. Her eyes darted around for a moment, before giving up on finding him. The older man could handle himself, the one in trouble right now was Allen. The boy was tied tightly to a chair, arms pinned to his sides, in the middle of what looked like a deranged gathering of the male townsfolk. They were all carrying makeshift weapons; spears, axes, hammers and many more.

Rowan felt increasingly dreadful. The town couldn't be intending on sacrificing Allen?

There was a flash of red in the corner of her eye. It was Lavi! He was sneaking inside one of the barrels behind Allen.

She wanted to facepalm. Just what was he doing?! Why inside there?! At times like this, she really didn't understand his train of thought.

But Rowan supposed he had a point in infiltrating the house, though his hideaway was questionable.

Creaking the door open, she slipped inside the house. Although, she had a little help from her element, bending the light away from herself to appear invisible. She managed to slide in between the throng of people, trying her hardest to not brush anyone because invisible doesn't mean intangible, as she made her way to the front where the exorcists were.

From what she heard, the mayor was explaining why he had abducted Allen at the station. The townspeople believed that the legend of a vampire living in the hilltop castle had come true because of the fangs they saw when Baron Crowley had attacked a woman, sucking out her blood until she turned into ashes. Rowan had to admit, it sounded legitimate, the way the mayor was describing the scene with such vivid detail. Surely, it was impossible to spin such a detailed story!

"No way.." The redhead stuck his body out of the barrel, seemingly deciding to not hide any longer. His chin rested on his hand, as though it was natural for him to be there.

"Lavi?!" Allen cried in shock and disbelief at the strange spot he had appeared in. "How-why-what are you doing here?!"

"I came to look for you! What are _you_ doing here?" He retorted.

Rowan chose that moment to reveal herself, since Lavi did too. Releasing her hold on the light, it was as though she simply popped into existence in front of their eyes. "Hello, Allen!"

The white-haired boy squawked, gaping at her. "Rowan!"

"Mayor!" One of the citizens whispered urgently, pulling on his coat. "Look! The cross emblem is on his coat too!"

"It's another black clergyman! Grab him!"

Within a blink of an eye, Lavi was tied up in a chair beside Allen.

Rowan quirked an eyebrow at them. So much for the fighting ability of exorcists.. How could they be captured so easily?

The village men circled the remaining visitor curiously. "Is she a one of them too? Should we..?"

"I'm with them but I'm not a clergyman. So, don't tie me up, alright?" They cowered at the sight of her smile, immediately shuffling backwards and putting distance between her and them. It was a smile that promised a fate worse than death should they even try to manhandle her.

"So, what exactly is going on here?" Allen hesitantly asked.

The mayor launched back into storytelling mode. He told the tale of how a black clergyman with gold embellishments on his coat had come to visit Crowley's castle. He had told them that if anything strange were to happen to Baron Crowley, then they should tell someone who wore a coat and cross like him. Certainly enough, Crowley had started acting out of the normal, attacking the villagers. His kill count was already nine.

"Tonight, we had made a resolution to rid this village of Crowley once and for all even if we might die. But!" As one, all the townsfolk got down on their knees in front of the two exorcists, bowing deeply. "God has not abandoned us, after all! Master Black Clergymen! Please do something to slay Crowley!"

"…"

"…"

"Uh, actually, we specialize more in the extermination of akuma.." Lavi tried to get them out of this increasingly weirder situation.

"Incredible! You can even exorcise demons! Your hearts are so strong!" The mayor gushed, tears of happiness spilling down his face.

"Uh, no, not that type of 'akuma'.." Lavi's weak retort went unheard in the midst of the enthusiastic praises the townsfolk heaped on them.

"By the way, what kind of person was he, that black clergyman that came before?" Allen asked, though he looked like he'd rather not know the answer. Rowan felt a surge of pity for him. She had an inkling of what he must have went through as that man's apprentice. A shudder went down her spine at the thought of Cross' excessive drinking, gambling and womanizing habits.

"Here!" The mayor shoved a hand-drawn rough portrait in Allen's face. The young boy withered at the sight. The hat, the long wavy hair and the half-mask was unmistakable. It was indeed, the General Cross.

Rowan sighed. "There's no other way around this then."

Allen and Lavi silently nodded in agreement with despair.

The trio were ushered out of the house towards the woods, and the castle that lay beyond without another moment to waste by the townspeople. Oddly, they were the ones supposed to leady the way but the three teenagers found themselves walking at the head of the pack. The villagers shuffled behind them, all carrying various anti-vampire knick-knacks such as wooden stakes, garlic and crosses.

"Hey," Lavi tugged Allen closer to him and Rowan, speaking in a hushed voice. "Y'know, they say if a vampire bites you, you become one yourself? Don't get bitten, you guys!"

Rowan cast a mocking side-glance in his direction. He might be the oldest, but sometimes, he certainly didn't behave like he was. "I didn't take you for a believer in such stories, Bookman Junior."

"Better safe than sorry!" The redhead snapped.

"You three, stop!" The mayor called out from behind. "We've reached the gates of Crowley's castle."

Out of the fog and the trees loomed an incredibly tall gate. It was also quite the strange design. Above the doors were a pair of eyes and a nose carved into the stone, as though walking through the doors would be akin to walking into a mouth of a giant. Howls and moans echoed in the air from beyond the gates causing Lavi and Allen to pale. Looking at them, Rowan held in her snort. They looked so terrified she actually felt sorry for them.

"Now, _forward_!" The mayor urged, sending chills down the spines of the two exorcists.

"Y-yes.." They slowly shuffled through the gates, the villagers trudging along a few footsteps behind.

"This Crowley really has bad taste.." Lavi muttered, eye wide at the grotesque statues littered in the courtyard which only added to the spooky effect. "Huh? Allen, why did you already remove your glove? Are you _scared_?"

"No way!" Allen cried. "You have your hand on your hammer too!"

"I'm not scared or anything, alright?" Lavi chuckled weakly, forcing a grin on.

"You're both scared." Rowan deadpanned, half amused and half exasperated at their show of bravado.

The light mood and laughter was cut short the moment they felt it. Their battle-seasoned instincts were screaming. Something was _here_ , watching them.

Instantly, the three of them formed a circle, backs against the others'.

"What's wrong?"

"Be quiet!" She barked at the oblivious mayor, on guard from the bloodlust she could feel in the air. It was too dark to see far and she wanted to summon her light, but the moment she lit up the place, it would be even more of a beacon to whatever was approaching.

Lavi graciously elaborated for the nervous villagers. "Something's here!"

"It's getting closer!" Allen warned, every muscle tensed to strike at the first sight.

Something black blew past them, the ends of their cloak whipping across Rowan's cheek. None of them could even react to it.

"So fast!" Lavi cursed.

"I smelled something sweet.." Allen's brow was furrowed as he tried to place the familiar scent.

"Sickeningly sweet." Rowan agreed. "It's almost floral.. like perfume."

The stinging on her cheek was becoming irritating and she raised her hand to rub it. Her fingers came away red. So, something _had_ passed them. The question was, where was it now? Where did it go?

A scream of agony from the back of the group of townspeople pierced the air, followed by a few other screams of shock and horror.

"What happened?!" The three of them immediately ran for the back, unceremoniously shoving a few of the townsfolk out of the way.

"F-franz! He's got Franz!" One of the adults shouted.

As they parted the crowd and reached the end, their jaws dropped at the sight. Lavi and Allen blanched severely, stifling their own screams of horror.

A tall male figure, draped in billowing black cape, was hunched over one of the male villagers, his teeth embedded in his neck.

"I-it's Aleister Crowley!"

* * *

 _A/N: Review please! Thank you! :)_


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